Frozen in the Past
by bluesky21543
Summary: Unable to bear LA and the memories it holds in light of a certain tragedy, Jack and his family move to a rural town, but even there Jack cannot find escape from his pain. However, the ice-cold heart of the teen is penetrated by a group of mismatched friends, but most powerfully of all, a girl with bicolored eyes. Will she be able to get him to fully let go of the past? AU, no OCs
1. Chapter 1: First Snow

**Summary: Unable to bear Los Angeles and the memories it holds in light of a certain tragedy, Jack Frost and his family move to the rural town Wittmore, but even there Jack cannot find escape from his pain. However, the ice-cold heart of the teen is penetrated by the weirdest and most unlikely group of mismatched friends, but most powerfully of all, a little girl with bicolored eyes. Will she be able to get Jack to fully let go of past? High School AU Human!Guardians (When I say 'no OCs,' I mean no OCs as main characters)**

**For Hatsu Yukiya. **

**__****italics - ****thoughts or flashbacks**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of the Guardians or any of the characters.**

* * *

**Chapter 1 - First Snow**

* * *

"911, what is your emergency?"

"My sis-my sister and I. He's after us! Please..."

"Young man, I have to ask you to please speak clearly. What is your exact location and situation?"

"Baker Street—Baker Street and Bristol—I think—I don't know any more—but he's coming any minute. Please help us!"

"Who is 'he?'"

"I don't know. He just—Rosie!"

Click.

beep beep beep

"Hello? Hello! Young man! Hello? If you can hear me, we are dispatching a patrol car to your assumed location. Just hang in there for a little longer. Hello?"

beep beep beep

* * *

"No hoods or hats allowed."

"Huh? Sorry what?"

The security man sighed. "No earbuds either. Take those out unless before you get your gizmo taken away."

Earbuds were promptly removed. "Gizmo? It's called an itouch."

"You kids keep coming out with new ones before the last has even a chance in the market. Don't expect me to remember what they're all called," the man snorted. After a moments silence, he once again said.

"No hoods. Take it off."

Blue hoodie slid silently off a shock of pure white hair.

Another condescending snort echoed through the empty school hallways. "Why you kids seem to want to have anything but what you were born with is beyond me. Keep bleaching your hair like that, kid, and you'll kill it all off before you reach twenty."

"You mean like you?" the teenager shot back easily.

The man ran a hand ruefully over his thinning mop of unkempt hair.

"At least mine doesn't look like all the colors have been washed out. It's unnatural I say. Red, purple. Before you know it, they'll be dying their skin unnatural colors too."

"It's called freedom of expression. We live in America don't we?"

"Still not natural," came the disgruntled reply.

"And I didn't ask for your opinion anyways, did I?" the boy muttered irritably under his breath.

"Eh? What was that?"

"Nothing," the teenager said, flashing the security guard a half-smile that was almost as unnaturally white as his hair.

The man eyed the boy suspiciously, but then shrugged and continued down the hall as the teenager muttered about guard's hearing being just as lost as his hair.

"Room 213. That's the class you're looking for, right?"

A grunted conformation was all the security guard got.

"Well," the man announced awkwardly. "Have a nice day, kid."

"Too late for that."

The guard stared at the teen for a moment before he decided that it was high time that he made his escape. The man shuffled away from the teen as if the boy would suddenly lunge at him if he got too close. Once he determined he was a safe distance away, the man took off towards the end of the hallway, while trying to make it look like he wasn't rushing.

The boy stared after the guard for a moment before turning back to the door at hand. "Adults are weird," he told the inanimate object. Of course, the door gave no answer.

Without giving himself any time to consider his actions, the teen twisted the handle and flung the door open with just enough force so that it made a satisfying thud against the door stopper. The sound carried easily through the classroom since apparently the room was in some sort of private study session.

The teacher looked up to scold whatever tardy student had arrived, but catching sight of an unfamiliar face, she immediately stood and held out a hand in welcome.

"You must be the new student. I expected you a little earlier."

"I got caught up in the office," the teen muttered. He stared at the teacher's offered hand as if he didn't know what to make of the loose, wrinkled skin that drooped sadly on her skinny fingers.

The teacher lowered her hand awkwardly and turned to the class.

"Would you mind introducing yourself?"

The teen let his gaze flicker lazily to the small group of curious teenagers.

"Jack. Jack Frost."

* * *

Toothania flipped multi-colored strands of hair out of her violet eyes to get a better look at the stranger.

He was... different; that's for sure.

Even though it was nearing the winter season, the boy—Jack—only wore dark pants and a rather worn light blue hoodie. It was a stark contrast to everyone else bundled up in winter jackets, scarves, and gloves. But even stranger than the teen's clothes was his pure white hair.

"Whoa there, mate. I can practically smell the bleach from all the way back here," a voice muttered next to Toothania.

Toothania promptly kicked the Aussie underneath the desk.

"Ouch! Oi, what the bloody—"

"Be nice," the girl whispered, looking back up front to make sure the teacher hadn't noticed their exchange. "Don't make fun of him."

"Don't get your panties all in a twist, Tooth. Who says I'm making fun of him? If I had anything against people with weird hair colors, I wouldn't be friends with you now would I?" To emphasize his point, the Aussie reached over and tugged a lock of bright blue hair connected to girl's head.

Tooth playfully swatted her friend's hand away.

"But you do have to admit," the Aussie continued. "That washed-out hair makes one wonder how much bleach the skinny, little bloke uses."

Tooth shrugged. Sure, it was strange, but Tooth thought it was rather fitting. From the ice-cold blue eyes to the pale skin and even the last name "Frost," the white hair worked just fine. And really who was Tooth to judge? Her own hair was a rainbow of blues, greens, and purples that covered nearly all of her naturally blonde locks.

"Aster! Toothania!"

Both students' heads snapped to attention as they tried to give their teacher innocent looks.

"Do you have something to share with the rest of the class?" Mrs. Codger asked.

Two heads dutifully shook their heads no.

Mrs. Codger gave the pair a final warning glare before turning back to her new student with an obviously forced smile.

"As I was saying, you may take the seat next to Aster Bunnymund. You two will be lab partners from now on." The teacher said this as if the two boys had just won the lottery, and Tooth had to stifle a giggle when she caught sight of Aster's frown that suggested that the thought the idea of sitting next to the new kid for the rest of the year was anything but.

Tooth was watching the new kid make his way towards Aster when she felt a hand tugging on her elbow. Looking over she caught sight of her own lab partner's amused grin.

"Don't give me that look," Tooth hissed under her breath. "Just because you never get in trouble for talking..."

Sanderson, or rather Sandy, was born mute so of course he never got in trouble for disrupting the class with idle chatter.

A piece of paper was pushed towards the girl, and with a quick check at the teacher, Tooth slid it closer to herself.

"_Do you know why he's transferring halfway through the first semester?"_ the scribbled note asked.

Tooth quickly wrote her response and passed it back to her mute friend.

"_Don't know. I heard he's from Los Angeles. The rest of his family is supposed to join him later in the year, so he's living with his uncle for now."_

"_Why come to Wittmore?_ _There's not much here."_

Tooth shrugged in response. Wittmore was a small, rural area that was more of a village than a city, so when it got out that Ol' North's nephew from the big city down south was coming to the humdrum life of the northern farmlands, it easily became the talk of the town.

Ol' Man North had bragged for years about his nephew who rivaled his own genius mind in the arts and in creativity.

North could come up with new toys faster than the kids could play with them and more than half of them carried a story about how his nephew had inspired its creation, but towards the end of last winter, the stories had stopped. The toys still came in a fervent pace, but no wonderful tales about how Jack had done this or how Jack had done that came to amuse the folks of Wittmore.

No explanation came with the abrupt stop of fanciful tales and boastings, but then late September rumors began to fly that the infamous Jack Frost would not only visit, but also actually live in their humble village.

"Back to work class!" Mrs. Codger's voice cut through Tooth's musings. "Jack, I'll print you out the synopsis so just wait a second."

Jack nodded disinterestedly and plopped down lazily in the seat next to Aster. Tooth studied the new student intently, trying to find the adventurous, wild child of Ol' North's stories, but the fabled boy didn't appear in the teenagers slumped position and tired eyes.

Aster cleared his throat quietly and effectively caught the white-haired boy's attention.

"Name's Aster," the Aussie introduced himself.

For the first time since walking into the class, the boy's lips twitched upwards. "Yeah, I heard." The teen leaned back lazily and stretched. "Bunnymund, huh?"

Aster stiffened. "Ya got something against my name, Frost?"

Jack shook his head, smile widening. "Nothing," he told the Aussie.

Aster narrowed his eyes suspiciously before turning back to his worksheet.

Tooth tried to focus again, but a small chuckle broke her concentration.

"Hop, hop, hop."

Tooth bit back a giggle as Aster's face turned a violent shade of red. Aster opened his mouth to snap back at the other teen, but thought better of it when he saw the teacher making her way towards Jack. The Aussie instead went back to work although Tooth noticed his pencil was now held in a death grip.

Jack chuckled again and a flash of white caught her attention.

Oh wow... His teeth. Did he bleach those too?

Tooth suppressed a very girly scream as her obsession came in full force.

They looked so perfect! Oh gosh, she would have to ask him how he kept them so white. Were they all so perfect as his front teeth? If only she could—

A tug on her right brought her back to the present, and Tooth realized that she was leaning far to the left and any farther would have left her sprawled in the aisle.

"Thanks, Sandy," she whispered to her friend.

Sandy gave her a silent laugh before returning to his own work.

Tooth turned back to try and catch another glimpse of those pearly whites, but another flash of white caught her attention.

"First snow," Tooth breathed, staring in wonder as the delicate flakes drifted gracefully along the winds.

Instantly, the class exploded into excited chatter as everyone's attention turned towards the window.

"How much do you think there'll be?"

"Snowball fights!"

"As if it's not cold enough..."

"Class! Settle down! Class!"

Tooth ducked her head, hoping Mrs. Codger didn't realize she was the one who had started the disruption, but her worry disappeared when she caught sight of Jack again.

His face, like everyone else's, was turned towards the window to watch the first snow of the season fall gracefully to the earth, but unlike the rest of students, his eyes betrayed pained longing and deep suffering. It made him look ten times older, but Tooth blinked and the broken individual was replaced by the new kid who was deceptively interested at the synopsis placed in front of him.

_Went to Big Bear Mountains with sister's family. Little nephew all over the place, getting into trouble here and getting into trouble there..._ an old Russian-accented voice told her.

_I made sled for my nephew and niece. Favorite color is blue. They will like it, no?_

_This toy reminds me of when Jack..._

Tooth stared at the boy with the blank blue eyes, a teen of supposed childish pranks, ceaseless laughter, and endless games, all of this according to an uncle's adoring tales.

Tooth watched the boy's clenched fist get tighter and tighter as the excitement escalated around the small classroom and that sly little light in his blue eyes dimmed until it's existence was snuffed out all together.

Were all those adventurous stories of the bold Jack Frost only exaggerated musings of an old, proud uncle or were they all just fairy tales to begin with?

* * *

**There was a request from Hatsu Yukiya to do a human!Baby Tooth so I decided to take up that challenge. Obviously if you read this chapter, then Baby Tooth has not shown up yet, but she definitely be coming up soon. **

**If you haven't read any of my other stories, then know that I usually update about every week or so. I have not done a high school fanfic before so if you have any suggestions, I'll gladly here some. **

**Warning: This is rated T for a scene that will be coming up and it does contain violence. **

**~Bluesky21543**


	2. Chapter 2: Forced Smiles

**Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of the Guardians or any of the characters.**

* * *

**Chapter 2 - Forced Smiles**

* * *

Slam!

"Jack? Is that you?" a heavily accented voice called. "Jack?"

"Yeah, it's me."

"You like new school? Meet lots of new people, yes?"

"Yeah."

A huge man rounded the corner and grinned down at his white-haired nephew.

"I have new sled. It will need someone to take it for a test run and soon ground will be covered with snow. We can take it out for a ride, yes?"

"No."

The large man looked taken aback, clearly not expecting the lack of enthusiasm coming from his nephew. Not even a year ago, Jack would have jumped at the chance to try one of his uncle's new toys no matter how childish it may have seemed.

Setting down the rag he had used to wipe his filthy hands, the man approached his nephew slowly.

"Jack, is there something you wish to talk about?"

"No."

"Jack…"

"Look, everything's fine, Uncle North," the teen interrupted. "School's fine. It's smaller than my old school, but it's fine. I'm a little behind in most of my classes, but I can catch up. It's fine. I'm… fine."

The old toymaker looked at his nephew and then out the window where the world was quickly becoming a winter wonderland.

"You love snow, Jack," North said slowly, almost more to himself than to the boy across from him. After a pause, the old man hesitantly added, "Perhaps we can try sled when you are not so tired, yes?"

Jack gave his uncle a thin, forced smile. "Yeah, sure. Thanks, Uncle North."

The elder man simply nodded sadly in response.

Jack walked past his uncle and cast his final sentence over his shoulder. "I'm fine, really."

"Really, Jack?" North whispered to the now empty spot in front of him.

But the boy must not have heard him, for the only sound that answered the old man's somber question was the lonely creak of a door and the final slam of it being shut.

* * *

"So what do you think of him?"

Aster looked up from his salad questioningly.

"Jack—I'm talking about Jack, Aster," Tooth clarified with a tinge of exasperation in her voice, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Why ya askin' me?" Aster asked through a mouthful of salad.

"Well, you do sit next to him in science and math," Tooth pointed out.

"Both arrangements were against my will if you remember," the teen muttered into another bite of greens.

"Well?" Tooth prompted.

"Why ya askin'? Just because I sit next to him doesn't mean I know his whole bloody story. And don't ya sit next to him in English?"

"Well, yeah, but he doesn't say much around me. I see you two talking all the time."

"That ain't talkin'. The little blighter won't stop with the 'bunny' comments," Aster snorted irritably.

"You mean all those times I see you talking, you two are just are insulting each other. Aster, he's only been here for three days and the only thing you can think to say to his is an insult?"

"He starts it!" Aster said defensively. "I would be more than happy to ignore the annoying, little, good-for-nothing—"

"And what's wrong with 'Bunny'?" Tooth interrupted. "We used to call you that all the time."

"That was back in elementary school, Tooth. We're high school juniors now," Aster sputtered.

"Well, I think it's still cute," Tooth informed him. "What about you, Sandy. Do you ever talk to him—I mean, not really talk—I guess you can't really do that—but you have art class with him, right? So do you like ever—I guess—write to him?"

The blonde boy gave a silent chuckle at his friend's rambling and nodded, while bringing his hands up to sign. "He's really good. You should see some of his artwork. I'm surprised he isn't in the higher art class with Aster."

"I don't need him in another one of my classes," Aster grumbled, while Tooth also spoke at the same time, saying, "That's great, Sandy, but the question was if you ever talk to him… or write…"

Sandy shrugged and signed, "He doesn't understand sign language, but I write for him sometimes and he talks to me a little."

"What do you think of him?" Tooth asked, trying to not sound so eager.

Another shrug. "He's…" Sandy's hands stilled mid-sign.

"He's…?" Aster prompted.

"It's kind of weird," Sandy signed hesitantly. "He's really funny, so he'll crack a lot of jokes, but then something distracts him and then he goes quiet."

"Oh," Tooth said taking a bite out of her sandwich, not sure what to make of Sandy's statement. Tooth tried to make the connection between the boy of North's stories and the teen she had known for only a few days. To say the least, the list of similarities was sadly lacking.

She turned in her seat and easily spotted the white hair among the sea of high school students. He looked rather lonely where he sat with a bunch of other juniors; students were planted both left and right of the white-haired boy, but their conversation flew around him and no one seemed interested in including him as he poked disinterestedly at his food.

For someone with such loud hair, he seemed to be… invisible.

Something shifted in Tooth's line of sight, and her vision was suddenly filled by the appearance of two pools of the brightest cerulean blue.

With a start, Tooth realized that the white-haired boy was looking _right_ at her and with her own body twisted around in a rather awkward position, it was quite obvious who exactly she was staring at.

There was no way Tooth could excuse this as an innocent glance around the room.

Tooth's face burned red as she chastised herself for being rude. Hadn't her baba said it was horrible manners to stare? And so openly too?

Before she could turn back to her lunch, a slight twitch of the boy's mouth caught her attention and she watched as a sly smile appeared on his face.

A pale hand came up from his untouched food, and he tapped his fork against his own cheek.

The small, repeated movement would have looked like a casual, absent-minded gesture to anyone else around the room, but for Tooth, that along with that knowing smile just made her face burn all the brighter.

Decided that hiding was useless, Tooth gave a tiny wave and smiled at the new boy.

The mischievous smile softened to something a little more genuine and the fork gave a playful wave back. Those blue eyes looked at her curiously as if trying to decipher her motive for making an effort to wave at him.

The fork froze mid-wave and those azure eyes widened and then narrowed as they focused on something just behind Tooth. Remembering that Aster was right across from her, Tooth turned to scold her friend from making inappropriate gestures, but when she twisted around, Aster was fully engaged in a conversation with Sandy.

Frowning, Tooth looked around the cafeteria in confusion. If Aster was not the one who had made Jack suddenly uncomfortable, then what was?

The whole east side of the cafeteria was covered in windows that gave an excellent view of the snow that had begun to fall again.

Tooth frowned as she remembered Jack's reaction to the snow his first day here. Did the snow bother him? She wouldn't think so since the teen's wardrobe clearly showed that the winter's cold hardly had an effect on him.

Tooth turned back to Jack, but the other teen had gone back to poking dismally at his food.

Looking back to the window, Tooth murmured absent-mindedly. "It's the snow. What's wrong with the snow?"

"Ain't that obvious, Tooth?" Aster's voice cut through her musings. His loud Australian voice easily carried throughout the whole cafeteria. "It's cold, it kills just about every plant in its path, and don't get me started about the mess it makes when the disgustin' stuff actually melts."

Over the noise of teenage chatter, Tooth could hear a harsh grating sound as a chair was pushed roughly back. Only a few seconds later, Tooth heard the cafeteria door open and then close with a loud bang!

She didn't have to turn around to know that a certain chair behind her now lay vacant.

"I told you this stuff was disgustin,'" Aster complained loudly as the trio tramped through the snow-covered streets.

Sandy made several hand gestures at the Aussie, but Aster had only caught the last few signs out of the corner of his eye.

"Say what, Sandy?" Aster huffed, hating the way his breath of air condensed into a chilly cloud of ice particles.

"He said to suck it up you big baby," Tooth answered for her mute friend.

Sandy raised his hands to correct Tooth's interpretation, but shrugged dropping them to his side again. That was more or less what he had said… sort of.

"How many jackets do you have on, Aster?" Tooth continued. "With all your layers, you should be plenty warm."

"Why my parents decided to move here… I'll never understand," Aster grumbled.

Tooth gasped, feigning a hurt expressing and pouting quite adorably. "Don't say that, Bunny-rabbit. We would have never have met you otherwise."

"Don't call me that, sheila," Aster said, although a trace of a smile could be seen on his lips before he adjusted his scarf to cover his freezing nose. "How that little bloke can stand this weather in just jeans and a hoodie is beyond me." Aster gestured lazily towards the slight figure of Jack Frost who was only a stone's throw away from the trio.

Tooth switched her gaze to follow Aster's pointing finger to see that indeed, Jack had come in his normal attire and remained impervious to the increasingly cold weather.

"Hey, Tooth!"

The girl squeaked in surprise as she gave a startled jump when an unexpected voice appeared at her side.

Aster's chuckles were slightly muffled under his many layers, and Tooth could almost hear Sandy's silent laughs.

Tooth turned to see a mop of unruly brown hair and a toothy smile that complimented his boyish features nicely.

"Hey, Freshie!" Aster greeted after smothering his laughs. "Ya know not to startle Tooth like that. The sheila's as flighty as a bird with just a tad too much grog in her system."

The boy stared at the Aussie as if the older teen had just come down from his mother ship and greeted him with grunts and clicks.

"He means I often have my heads up in the clouds, Jamie," Tooth explained.

The younger boy blinked before nodding hesitantly.

"I'm speakin' plain English, ya dill," Aster muttered, while Sandy patted him comfortingly.

"Uh, anyways," Jamie said, trying to move past the subject of Aster's unusual slang. "Can… can I walk with you guys? I mean, since we're going the same way and stuff." The boy looked up shyly, that toothy grin once again sliding onto his face.

Tooth returned the smile. "You don't have to ask, Jamie." How could she say no to that adorable smile anyways?

"Yeah, the rode's big enough to fit the four of us," Aster added, having got over the boy's unintentional insult.

The young boy relaxed and his eyes flickered to the wide street in front of them as if to confirm that the four of them could indeed walk comfortably together. His eyes came to rest on a certain hunched figure only a few feet from them now.

"How about the five of us?" Jamie asked.

Aster scowled. "Too crowded. Plus I think Frost likes— Oi! Where ya going, Freshie?"

Jamie ignored the Aussie's disapproving tone and ran to catch up to the skinny teen.

Feeling like it would be bad to just allow Jamie to face the new kid alone, Tooth jogged after him, also ignoring Aster's indignant protests.

She had nearly caught up to the boy when she heard his friendly greeting.

"Hey!" Jamie greeted cheerfully.

A white-haired head turned to the side and studied the boy. Judging by the way Tooth saw those blue eyes widen slightly, Jack had not expected anyone to initiate any sort of conversation with him.

"I'm Jamie," the boy continued on, not at all fazed by the other boy's unresponsiveness.

Silence.

Tooth slowed down her approach as she watched Jamie shift uncomfortably in the growing silence. His cute, little smile was still plastered on his face, but it grew uncertain as the silence lengthened.

Jack reached up and pulled something out of his ears. They dangled from his fingers and Tooth was pretty sure they were earbuds.

"Uh, hi?" Jack said finally. "Sorry, did you say something?"

Jamie's smile immediately brightened. "I'm Jamie," the boy repeated.

Jack just stared at the younger teen uncomprehendingly as if a rock had just sprung out the earth and started conversing with him.

Clearly unfazed, Jamie continued talking, "You know, usually this is the part where you say your name."

"I was under the impression that everyone in this town knew who I was," Jack said, regaining the use of his tongue.

Jamie shrugged. "Kinda better to hear it from you."

A ghost of a smile fluttered across those pale lips. "Jack Frost."

"Cool," Jamie said with a smile as if that introduction alone was enough to make them best friends. "This is Aster and Sandy, but I guess you've already met them."

Jack flashed a brilliant smile straight at Aster, and Sandy literally had to restrain Tooth from getting a closer look at those pearly whites.

"Yeah, we've met."

Aster narrowed his eyes at the white-haired boy. "Frost."

Jack chuckled, obviously unperturbed by Aster's death-stare. "Hey, Sand-man."

Sandy gave a friendly wave.

"And Tooth," Jamie finished. "Have you met her?"

Jack's blue eyes switched to Tooth and the multicolor-haired girl suddenly felt very self-conscious.

"We've met," Jack said, subtly tapping his finger to his cheek, while Tooth's own cheeks began to heat up. "But we've never been properly introduced."

Jack stuck out his hand formally and straightened his back; all the while, the laughter in his eyes making the ridiculous greeting a joke.

"Jackson Overland Frost. And you are...?"

Tooth could not help the silly little grin that played on her lips. Taking Jack's pale hand and shaking it firmly, she answered, "Toothiana Sang. But everyone just calls me Tooth."

"Tooth?"

Internally, Toothiana groaned. Of course, having such a strange, Tooth was used the thousands of questions that came with it.

"It's my parents. You see, they're both dentists—the only dentists in town, in fact—and they just really love their work. Well—"

"It's cool," Jack interrupted. "You don't have to spill your whole life story."

Tooth smiled shyly, realizing she was running her mouth again.

"Tooth!"

Everyone's head turned at the sound of the new voice.

Aster let out a small chuckle, "Looks like the troops have arrived."

"Tooth!" came another cry.

A flurry of bright colors nearly barreled straight into Tooth with excited cries.

"Looky! Looky Looky!"

"John lost two teeth at once! He traded them to us!"

"Look how pretty!"

Young hands were shoved into Tooth's face and nestled in those woolen mittens lay two of the most beautiful teeth the teenager had ever seen.

"Oh, girls," Tooth cooed, carefully plucking the teeth up like they were valuable gems. "Wonderful! How much did you get them for?"

"John was really nice. He gave them both for just a dollar."

"I think that's because he has a crush on you."

"Does not!"

"Does too! Mai and Johnny sitting in a tree—"

Tooth blocked out the rest of the childish argument and brought the two teeth up for closer inspection.

"Tooth _buys_ teeth from little children?" Jack finally spoke up over the commotion.

"It's a hobby," Jamie supplied. "Tooth and her sisters give a dollar for each tooth. The elementary school kids love Tooth."

Jack eyed the four girls that were currently swarming around the group of teenagers. "These are her sisters?" he asked.

"Well, the blonde one's my sister," Jamie answered. "She's Sophie."

"Oh," Tooth said, snapping out of her tooth-induced trance. "I'm so rude. The two oldest ones are the twins Kannitha and Mai. The youngest one is Kuanyin."

"Sophie, Kannitha, Mai, and Kawnyin," Jack repeated.

"No!" a young voice protested indignantly. The youngest of the group marched up to Jack. She had colorful streaks in her hair like all of her sisters except, unlike the twins who seemed to have darker hair, this girl's hair had blonde locks peeking through much like Tooth's. The girl glared up at Jack and flashed multicolored eyes—one blue and one purple. "Kuanyin. Ku-wan-yin."

"Kawn-yin," Jack said slowly.

"No!" the girl shook her head again. "Kuanyin. You say it like—oh, pretty."

Tooth watched in amusement as her sisters caught sight of Jack's teeth and slowly began to advance upon the white-haired teen.

As if sensing the danger he was suddenly in, Jack backed up a couple steps as his blue eyes darted from side to side, trying to map the best escape route.

Deciding that a full body tackle from three elementary girls was a bad first impression, Tooth intervened. "We should get going girls. I'd promised North that we would pick up the package right after school. We shouldn't be late."

"Is it finished?" Mai asked excitedly, sufficiently distracted so that Jack could retreat safely behind Sandy.

"What are you getting from my uncle?" Jack questioned.

"Come on," Tooth said, ignoring both of the questions. She turned and continued down the road, not looking back to see if her friends were following.

"Bunny, piggyback ride?" Sophie asked, reaching up towards the tall Aussie.

"Why does she get to call you Bunny?" Jack asked.

"Shut ya trap," Aster grumbled as he bent down and easily hoisted the young girl onto his back.

The group fell into comfortable chatter despite the varying age groups. They were used to it since all of them lived so close together and usually ended up walking home together. Tooth found herself relaxing despite the winter's cold bite, but even among the warmth of her friends, the girl was quite aware of a certain cold presence that drifted on the fringes of their group. The cold presence made no effort to join the warm inner circle, but seemed content to remain tight-lipped and serious.

"There it is!" Kannitha shouted.

"Race ya!" Mai shot at her sisters.

The brightly colored trio shot forward through the snow, wrecking havoc in their wake.

"Bunny! Faster, faster, faster!" Sophie shouted upon her majestic steed.

Aster muttered something about kids and packhorses, but did not hesitate in complying with Sophie's wishes. In about two seconds flat, the Aussie had easily caught up to the younger girls.

Grinning, Tooth watched the rather strange spectacle of three small girls trying to glomp a six-foot-seven giant (at least, in the eyes of said little girls), while indistinguishable curses and protests echoed in the chilly air.

Just behind the snowball fight that was breaking out, a huge two-story house stood by the road. It was easily the biggest house in town although Tooth reflected that Jack had probably seen bigger on a regular basis in Los Angeles. The house had an inviting wraparound porch and worked as North's living quarters, workshop, and toy store. In short, the house was a peppermint-scented wonderland where a child's wildest fantasies came alive.

"Good afternoon, children!"

Tooth looked up and beamed at the jolly man walking towards their group.

"I see you found my nephew," the man said playfully. "Thank you for bringing him home for me. Easy to get lost in this busy city, no?"

"This place has like one main road, Uncle North. I'm pretty sure I'm good," Jack said, coming up beside his uncle.

Side-by-side, Tooth could barely believe there were related. North was round but muscular, jolly and all smiles, warm and inviting, and Jack was… not.

Even their clothes were a far cry from each other. North wore his heavy red overcoat and his ever-present Russian hat, and Jack wore his usual light blue hoodie and dark pants.

"Bah, is joke, Jack. I cannot believe I am telling _you_ to lighten up," North said and then turned to Tooth. "You here for something special?"

The three younger Sang girls crowded around North, all chattering at once.

"Girls, girls," Tooth chastised. "What is the proper thing to say?"

"Please," they all chorused.

As if by magic, the older man produced a large sled. It truly was a masterpiece. Tooth did not know much about sleds or art for that matter, but even at a glance, Tooth could see the finely sanded edges, the oiled down runners—North had even etched in designs on its wooden surface.

"Oh, North. It's beautiful," Tooth gushed as she ran her hand reverently over the sled. "You didn't have to go through all the trouble of making it so detailed. I mean we're riding on it after all and you know that we'll be running it into thing and—"

North chuckled, "Is my pleasure, Tooth. Is fun to put this much work into sled."

"Oh, can we try it now? Can we? Can we?" Mai begged.

"Of course!" North laughed. "Is why I made sled, no?"

"Yay! Kannitha help me!"

Tooth watched the twins carry the sled towards the hill so conveniently located next to North's house as the rest of the gang trailed after them.

"You should join them," North urged Tooth. "Looks like this will be fun."

"Will you come to see you own work in action," Tooth asked.

North laughed, "Why not?"

Tooth noticed Jack trying to sneak past his uncle towards the house. "Hey, Jack. Do you want to join us?"

Jack looked back at Tooth and then at the group where excited cries rang out.

"I…" Jack trailed off, something unrecognizable crossing across his eyes. "I have work to catch up on. You know, moving and everything…"

Tooth expected North to grab his nephew and insist that the boy have a little _fun. _

But the older man did none of that and simply nodded sullenly.

Tooth had a feeling that this was not the first time a conversation like this had happened.

"Um, we'll be here for a while so if you ever finish what you need to do…" Tooth trailed off, the offer dying in her throat as Jack simply turned away and walked through the doorway.

"Mr. North! Tooth!" Mai's voice called them.

North turned to Tooth. "I should talk to him."

Tooth bit her lower lip uncertainly. "If there's anything I can do…"

North shook his head and when he had looked up he had a smile on his face. "Have fun with your friends and little sisters. Such good snow should not be wasted."

The older man offered her another smile, but Tooth did not believe that smile for a second.

* * *

**Yes, in my last update I had said that I update almost weekly. Yes, I am aware that it is nearly 2 (3?) weeks later. Do I have a good excuse? No.**

**I have a life. That is all I have to say on the matter. **

**If you have not already caught on yet, Kuanyin is Baby Tooth. Kuanyin is the name Hatsu Yukiya had given her, so I had thought I had I might as well use that name. Kannitha and Mai as well as Sang are all Southeast Asian names since Toothiana's palace is located somewhere in that region. **

**Don't worry. You will eventually find out why Jack is all angsty and stuff. I'm just setting the stage right now. **

**I'll try to be more consistent with my updates. And since I was rushing to get this chapter up, I expect there are some typos, so let me know if you spot any and I will change them ASAP.**

**Thanks also to my anonymous reviewer 21SidraCire. Your reviews are always appreciated. :)**

**~Bluesky21543**


	3. Chapter 3: Fortuitous Solutions

**Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians.**

**_italics – _thoughts**

* * *

**Chapter 3 – Fortuitous Solutions**

* * *

"But it was an excused absence!"

"I understand that, Toothania, but as I had explained at the beginning of this year, any absences were the responsibility of the student, meaning that within a week, you had to find and make-up the work you missed whether that be coming to me directly or asking a reliable friend to fill you in."

Tooth squeezed the binder in her hands, finding her only comfort in imagining her hands' next target—a certain Aussie's neck.

Why she had depended on the student barely keeping a C in this class to keep her updated, she would never know. Clearly, that had not been her smartest move.

_Okay, Toothania. Try pulling out the pity card. _

"Mrs. Codger," Tooth began, trying to be as sweet and polite as humanly possible. "My sister really needed me to be there and with everything going on I was just so distracted—"

Mrs. Codger held up a hand to cut off Tooth's attempt at sweet talk. "Toothania, I am well aware of your sister's unfortunate accident. I understand the situation—I really do—"

_No you don't, you insufferable snake_, Tooth thought bitterly, seeing where this conversation was going.

"But I make no exceptions. You had a week to make up the work."

Tooth bit her bottom lip to keep herself from arguing any further.

"You do understand, don't you Toothiana?"

"There's nothing I can do to make up for it? Some extra credit?" Tooth tried her last resort.

Mrs. Codger seemed to consider that for a moment, and Tooth's hope soared until it came crashing down when the chemistry teacher shook her head.

"There's nothing I can think of that would be equal to that particular lab experiment."

"Just let me do the lab on my own!"

Another shake no. "Unfortunately, the materials spoil after a week. I had to throw it out. It just wouldn't make sense to order a whole new batch for one student."

Finally defeated, Tooth slumped her shoulders.

"I'm sorry," Mrs. Codger apologized awkwardly. "I did warn each one of you the beginning of the school year."

Tooth waved off the teacher's attempts to console her and resisted the urge to yell at her. There was someone more accessible and far more deserving of her wrath.

Tooth hurriedly picked up her bag and nearly crashed into Jack Frost on her way out.

The other teen mumbled something to her. Maybe a word of concern? Tooth could not be sure as her eyes tunnel-visioned toward a certain so-called "reliable friend."

"Hey, sheila. Did ya get everything worked out—"

Aster nearly choked on his last word as Tooth stormed up to him and Sandy, eyes ablaze with a murderous, purple light.

"You!" Tooth exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at her friend.

"Me?" Aster questioned, staring down at the slim finger that had been unexpectedly shoved in his face.

"'Oh, nothing important, mate. Just the same old, boring lectures. Just read the chapters and you'll be fine.' I believe those were your exact words to me three weeks ago," Tooth practically snarled.

Tooth could almost see the gears turning in the boy's head as he put the pieces together. A hand came up to scratch the back of his head as he offered her a sheepish smile. "Ya have a pretty good memory there, Tooth," Aster said.

Next to them, Sandy grabbed Tooth's sleeve, and when she turned, he gave her a questioning look.

"Remember when Mai got in that accident weeks ago and I had stayed with her for about a week in the hospital? Well, I come back to school and make up all my work. Or at least I thought I had until my parents got a call saying that I'm practically failing chemistry because someone forgot to tell me we had an important lab experiment that is worth a large percentage of our grade."

Tooth once again jabbed a finger at the Aussie, almost taking out an eye. "Do you know how hard I've worked to keep my grade up? My parents are going to kill me!"

"N-now isn't that a bit of an exaggeration, mate?" Aster said. "Your parents ain't that mean—"

The rest of his statement was cut off when Tooth advanced on him with a frustrated cry.

Sandy tried to hold his friend back, but the situation switched when he found himself facing the full brunt of Toothania's rage when she suddenly whirled on him.

"And what about you?" Tooth demanded. "I never heard you say a word."

"Ain't that obvious?" Aster muttered. "The little blighter never says a thing. Kinda hard when ya're mute."

Tooth was too distracted to take note of the comment, and Sandy's hands were busy signing that bodily assault would not solve anything in the slightest.

"Hey, Tooth?"

The girl spun, ready to direct her anger at a new target. Jack yelped and backed away from Tooth's clenched fist. Something in her eyes said that if he did not speak fast, his face would be suddenly and painfully introduced to one of the school walls, and despite her slim, petite appearance, it would not be pretty.

"Mrs. Codger wants to see back in her room," Jack said quickly, his textbook was held defensively in front of him, while his face had a don't-shoot-the-messenger look.

Tooth lowered her fists, feeling all the anger leave a cold rush. There wasn't something else she did not make up, was there? A test maybe?

She shot a glare at Aster, hoping for both their sakes there was not anything else.

Tooth reluctantly followed Jack back into the classroom, not at all happy to be seeing Mrs. Codger so soon.

"Ahh, Miss Toothania," Mrs. Codger greeted. "Did you have a nice conversation outside?"

Tooth blushed, realizing too late that both Mrs. Codger and Jack had probably heard a good portion of her rant.

Speaking of a certain white-haired teen, why was he still standing with her? She did not want anyone else witnessing the torture Mrs. Codger was most likely going to subject her to.

"Just talking with my friends, ma'am," Tooth mumbled.

The teacher gave an unconvinced hum, but much to Tooth's relief, dropped the issue. "I was talking to Jackson here and in two weeks time I will be giving him a test that will cover what we've learned so far. He has learned most of the material but he did miss two or three chapters due to the transition period of moving."

"Okay?" Tooth said, not at all seeing what this had to do with her.

"I don't believe that simply reading the chapters will be enough for Jackson to fully understand the subjects and I won't have enough time to properly tutor him. I have decided that you can bring your grade up by tutoring Jackson for the next couple weeks. I still can't give you full credit, so your grade will be dependent on Jackson's. Whatever his grade is yours will be one letter grade lower."

Tooth eyed Jack skeptically. She didn't know how he did in his classes; it was still too early to tell. With this arrangement, the highest she could possibly get was a 90...

Tooth opened her mouth to question some of the logic of this deal, but Mrs. Codger swept on, "Even a D would be better than that 0 currently in your grade, don't you think?"

"Yes, ma'am," Tooth conceded. "Thank you."

The teacher shook her head. "I believe you owe your thanks to Jackson here. It was his idea after-all."

Tooth gaped, unsure of how to respond. Jack would do that for her?

Beside her, Jack began to fidget under the sudden, uncomfortable attention.

Oblivious to the teens' discomfort, Mrs. Codger made a flippant gesture with her hand as if they were annoying, little gnats. "I have work to do. If there are problems with arrangement, say them now or else get out."

Thus, being so graciously excused, the two teens turned and hurried from the classroom. The hallways were deserted when the two teens stepped back into them, and Tooth assumed that both Aster and Sandy had wisely decided that waiting around for her would not be beneficial for their health.

Turning awkwardly to face Jack, Tooth stammered, "Why did you—I mean, you didn't have to..."

Jack raised an unimpressed eyebrow at her. "You can start with a 'thank you.'"

Tooth felt the blood rush to her face. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Tooth bit her bottom lip before adding, "Why did you...?"

Jack glanced at her as if the thought had never crossed his mind. The teen stretched nonchalantly, but Tooth was sure that the barest hints of pink now colored the boy's cheeks. "I've got to catch up on my work. If the teacher can't help me..." Jack stopped and shrugged as if his solution had been the most obvious answer.

Tooth wanted to throw herself on Jack, thank him, and maybe take a peek at those pearly whites, but she did not want to scare away her only chance of improving her grade.

Tooth looked up and realized that Jack was waiting on her to make the next decision. His bored expression seemed to say "I already did my part—your turn."

"Right," Tooth exclaimed, trying to sound like the confident tutor she hoped she would be. "Does Saturday—tomorrow—work for you? I'm free all day. Well, except for the evening, but I can change—"

Jack laughed, a pure, innocent sound.

And it took Tooth about ten whole seconds to realize that this was the first time she had ever heard him laugh, not those playful sneers or mocking chuckles he threw at Aster, but a good proper laugh. She couldn't help think that Jack should do it more often. It fit him and brought him a bit closer to the fabled boy of North's stories.

"Morning is fine. Say nine at my house?" he asked.

Tooth mutely agreed and barely realized that Jack was now throwing his good-byes over his shoulder.

"Glad it all worked out for ya, mate."

Tooth whirled and shot a glare up at Aster. "You should also be thanking Jack because I would have made sure no one would have found your body."

Aster knocked away the accusing finger that had once again had found its way under his chin. "Crikey, whoever gave ya the nickname "Tooth fairy" did not know ya. Ain't nothing pixie-like about ya. And I said I was sorry. Ya forgive me, right?"

Tooth's only answer was a sly little smile.

* * *

Tooth stood nervously on the porch. She'd been here hundreds of times, but this time...

She shifted her load uncertainly. Her grade depended on Jack's, and as much as she was interested in and liked Jack (and his teeth), Tooth definitely did not like the sound of that. Jack had done her a favor, but what if he turned out to be a bad student?

Tooth studied the door to North home/workshop. The man had carved strange snow monsters into the wood, but unlike the fearsome winter ghouls, these ones looked friendly, like cute, fuzzy abominable snowmen. Tooth had never noticed them before—probably because she never had to wait so long out on this porch. The books started to get heavy in her grip and the winter air certainly was not making her comfortable at the moment. Tooth was about to attempt knocking on the door again when it suddenly swung open.

Tooth yelped as her forward momentum met no resistance, and suddenly, all that lay between her body and the floor was air—vital in terms of life, but quite useless as a cushion.

Tooth lay sprawled on the floor as Jack stared down at her with a slightly surprised and completely amused expression.

"Um, hi?" Tooth said, trying to smooth herself out and gather her materials.

With a chuckle, Jack joined her on the floor and picked up a textbook. "Do you expect me to read all of this?" He gestured to the two textbooks and various notes scattered around them.

"We won't need everything, but you never know," Tooth explained.

They stood and Jack handed Tooth back her things. "Uncle North is gone for the morning. Something about playing with some local kids and a new toy, but he says hi and that you can help yourself to the cookies and... Uh, is there something on my face?"

Tooth gaped and vaguely heard a tiny part of her brain tell her it was rude to stare and her wide-open mouth was very unattractive, but at the moment, the rest of her brain was too shocked to care.

"You-your eyes..." Tooth finally stuttered.

Jack stared at her, clearly not understanding what could be so interesting about his eyes.

"Their color!" Tooth exclaimed. "They were blue yesterday!"

Two eyebrows arched upwards in understanding, giving Tooth an excellent view of the twin orbs of now chocolate brown color.

Jack gave a sharp laugh as he grabbed the door to steady himself. "That's it?" he snickered. "The way you were looking at me, I had thought that I had grown a nasty wart or something in the middle of my forehead."

"But I don't get it. Why are the brown now?" Tooth demanded.

Jack gave her an infuriating smirk as if considering to just let her wallow in the unknown.

"I haven't put in my contacts yet," Jack explained. "This is my natural eye color."

"You wear contacts?"

"Is that so surprising?" Jack questioned back.

"No, I had just assumed that you had blue eyes like your uncle," Tooth said.

Jack snorted, "And I suppose that you thought that I also naturally have white hair like my uncle. Nah, contacts and hair bleach. I have brown hair and eyes like my dad."

Jack flashed her a white smile and Tooth could not help returning it.

Turning quickly, Jack grabbed a bag of cookies off a coffee table and headed toward the stairs. "Come on. There's more room upstairs where Uncle North's mess hasn't quite reached yet."

Tooth followed hesitantly, having never been to the upstairs portion of North's house. Jack lead her down the hallway and through one of the doorways into what Tooth could only assume was his room.

It was blue, unsurprisingly, simply furnished, and obviously hastily tidied to the point where the floor was clear and there was enough room for two teens to study. But what caught Tooth's eye were the walls.

Quickly putting down her things, Tooth went to the nearest wall to inspect its contents. Drawings ranging from wintery sceneries to funny little cartoon characters were posted all around the room and each piece was done with blue pen to match the room's color scheme. Tooth lifted up a piece of paper and underneath she could see that an intricate white fern design had been painted onto the blue walls.

Tooth turned back to Jack, clearly impressed. "You did all this?" she asked.

The teen shrugged. "It is my room, my stuff," he said as if that alone answered all her questions. "Well except for that one."

Jack pointed to a framed picture also done in blue ink. Tooth never had studied art extensively, but she could easily see that this piece had been done by a novice's hand. The scene depicted a boy and a girl ice-skating hand-in-hand. The faces of the figures were not very detailed, but Tooth was sure that the boy was supposed to be Jack.

"Who...?" Tooth gestured to the picture.

Jack stared at the image. His brown eyes misted over with so many unidentifiable emotions. He hesitated for a moment, but eventually answered, "My sister. She loved ice-skating, loved winter, perhaps more than I do."

Jack loved winter? Tooth turned to look at Jack questioningly, but the boy was staring off somewhere else. From the way Tooth had seen Jack avoid the snow and outside, she would have never guessed.

"So," Jack's voice broke her out of her musings. He held up one of her textbooks and said, "I'm going to pass this chem test, right?"

* * *

"You have got kidding me," Jack groaned. "How am I supposed to remember these random facts?"

Three hours and one cookie bag later, the two teens were busy going over the chemistry chapters... and Jack felt no closer to understanding the subject than when they first began.

"They're not random facts," Tooth protested. "If you keep thinking that, then you'll never learn it."

"Not random, huh? Not random how?"

Tooth opened her mouth to answer, but Jack held up a hand to silence her. "Never mind. Don't tell me," Jack sighed. "If you do it now, I'm just going to confuse myself even further."

Tooth also gave a heavy sigh, rapidly losing hope in this tutoring thing.

Jack groaned again and took off his glasses in order to rub his tired eyes.

Tooth had found the whole glasses very amusing. The dark frames matched the color of his eyes and made the usually cool, aloft teen look more collected and sophisticated. At least, that was Tooth's opinion and she had made it a point in telling the boy so.

Jack had given Tooth a rather skeptical look, but looked neither bothered nor embarrassed about his temporary change in appearance.

Deciding they had discussed chemistry to death, Tooth set the book in front of her down on the floor.

"So why bleach your hair and wear colored contacts? Are you trying to make a statement?" Tooth asked amicably.

Glad for the sudden change in subject, Jack easily answered, "Blue's my favorite color."

Tooth looked around at the blue walls, blue pictures, and different blue trinkets.

"I would never have guessed," Tooth giggled before a frown flickered across her face. "Give me that!"

Tooth yanked Jack's second bag of cookies out of his grip and tossed it out of the boy's reach.

"Hey!" Jack protested. "I was eating those!"

"Oh no," Tooth chided. "You already had one bag."

"What are you? My mom?" Jack said. "I'm a growing boy and the other bag was only half full."

"Like that makes it any better. Cookies have way too much sugar. Sugar rots teeth. Your teeth are much too good to be wasting on the decaying powers of sugar," Tooth said matter-a-factually.

"My what? Teeth? You deny me food in my own house because of my teeth?" Jack replied.

Tooth smiled sweetly and dug around in her bag. "Here," she proclaimed, presenting him with a bag of carrot sticks.

Jack took the bag of carrot sticks and looked between it and Tooth incredulously. He looked like a dog who had his steak taken away and was given a bone instead.

"So what about your hair?" Tooth continued, ignoring the insulted looks Jack kept shooting her. "Why bleach it?"

Jack shrugged while he took out a carrot stick and began twirling it between his fingers instead of eating it. "Why do you color yours? A shout out to individuality, I guess. My parents didn't care." Tooth remembered her mom almost had a heart attack when she came home with streaked hair. "And my sister thought it was cute." At that statement, a wistful smile crept onto the boy's face.

"What's your sister like?" Tooth asked.

The carrot stick paused in its little finger dance. Tooth watched Jack hesitate again before he spoke again. "Her name's Rosie. She would want you to believe she's sweet, but don't believe it for a second." Jack met Tooth's eyes and the girl once again saw those eyes, glinting playfully at her. "I had this rep at my old home. I was the king of pranks and Rosie... she was my little secret weapon." Jack frowned again and the image of piercing, lighthearted eyes disappeared into hazy russet brown. "She loved the snow; we both did, but to her it was something magical. She would have loved it here."

Something clicked in Tooth's mind and inspiration suddenly struck the teen. "Snow," Tooth whispered. "Jack get a coat or something and meet me downstairs."

"What?" came the confused reply.

"We're taking a field trip," she announced over her shoulder.

Tooth raced down the stairs and scrambled into her winter gear. Jack joined her a moment later, the only difference being that his favorite hoodie was now pulled over his skinny frame and contacts now colored his eyes that startling blue.

"Okay, so I have no idea what this has to do with anything," Jack said as Tooth led him outside to where a light snow was once again falling on them.

Jack lingered under the house's protective canopy for a moment, but Tooth would have none of that. Taking his pale hand in her own gloved one, Tooth led him into the middle of the fluffy snowfall. When Tooth released his hand, Jack stopped and looked around, his arms coming up around his body as if he just realized that a hoodie was not going to be enough to protect him from the winter cold.

Jack was still looking around with a strange look in his eyes when the wet, sludgy snowball hit him smack in the face. Jack gasped as the cold began to seep into his clothes and he whirled to face Tooth who was innocently holding another snowball.

"What the heck!"

"The covalent bonds of a molecular solid," Tooth interrupted.

Jack stared in confusion as if Tooth had just spoken to him in an alien language.

"You were listening to at least some of what I was teaching you, right?" Tooth sighed.

"Right," Jack replied with no conviction.

"The covalent bonds of a molecular solid," Tooth repeated. "It's the way water and ice molecules are formed."

"Of course," Jack agreed, his eyes still blank.

"Name the six different types of solids," Tooth ordered, leveling her second snowball.

Jack tensed and eyed the icy weapon warily. "Molecular, atomic, amorphous, iconic…"

_Smack!_

Jack sputtered as he tried to wipe the melting ice out of his eyes. When he looked up again, Tooth already had two more snowballs at the ready.

"_Ionic, _not iconic," Tooth corrected.

"Did we come out here, so you could just punish me with snowballs?" Jack asked, trying to edge his way back to the house's doorway.

"No, not really," Tooth answered, tossing one of the snowballs to herself good-naturedly. "Although it is fun."

"Fun," Jack muttered. He dodged another snowball.

"Didn't you hear what I said about ice?" Tooth asked. "Ice is made of covalent bonds. The bonds of the hydrogen and oxygen atoms are what allow it to have its rather unique crystalline structure."

Jack bent down and picked up a handful of snow. "All that in a tiny flake, huh?" he asked, packing the snow together.

"Face it, Jack," Tooth said with a smile and gestured to the woods next to North's house. "These facts aren't so random. You've just got to look."

She turned to admire the winter scenery and breathe in the cool air.

Something occurred to Tooth, something about Jack saying he loved winter. "Hey, Jack? What—"

The sentence ended in a yelp as freezing ice slammed into her shoulder. The girl frantically wiped at the clinging snow, trying to dispel the cold that was already seeping through her light sweater. She glared at Jack, who smirked back teasingly. If she had known he would suddenly develop a mischievous side, she would have put on her winter coat as well.

Jack shrugged, tossing another snowball from one hand to another. "Freezing point of water 0 degrees Celsius, 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and 273 Kelvin."

"Okay," Tooth said, bending down to scoop up some ice. Jack flashed her another dazzling smile before hopping sideways to avoid another projectile aimed at his head. "Answer me this: In winter, it is not uncommon for water pipes in cold areas to burst. Why?"

Her only answer was a snowball whizzing by her head and an echoing laugh as Jack escaped into the forest.

"Jack!" Tooth protested as she struggled to follow the white-haired boy into the trees. "We're supposed to be studying."

"Water expands as it freezes," Jack's voice answered her, but when Tooth whirled around, there was no one there. The voice continued, "That's why the pipes burst. Screw the books and ask me another question. If we have to study, we might as well have some _fun."_

A flash of bright blue darted out from behind a tree and Tooth sent two snowballs in its direction.

The laughter resonated all around and mixed and mingled with the natural sounds of the wild. Even though she stood alone in the wide forest, Tooth could not help but feel joy bubbling up inside of her as she search for a certain elusive pupil.

"Okay," Tooth conceding, mentally scrambling for another question. "Let's have some fun."

* * *

**I am back! So where was I? Russia! Anybody from that fabulous country? Yes? No?**

**Well anyways, I'm glad to be back and as always thankful for all you who reviewed, alerted, and/or favorited this story.**

**The idea of Jack's glasses come's from Hatsu Yukiya's Snowflakes fanfic where there are small stories of bookworm!Jack. I thoroughly enjoyed those ones, so I thought I do a little spin on it myself, but this is probably the first and last time we will see that.**

**Adios!**

**~Bluesky21543**


	4. Chapter 4: The Lady and her Knight

**Disclaimer: I still own nothing.**

* * *

**Chapter 4 - The Lady and her Knight**

* * *

Jack trudged through the snow, enjoying the cool winter air for the first time in a long time.

The white-haired boy inhaled appreciatively. The ice-cold atmosphere seemed so tranquil, and for once, those nasty nightmares did not linger in the visions of ice and snow.

With a reflective pause, Jack bent down and scooped up a handful of snow, remembering Tooth's lesson.

"Molecular solid, huh?" Jack murmured to the little snow particles.

"Yeah!"

Jack started and dropped the snow in his hand. The ice plopped innocently back into the bank, joining its million other brethren. The teen stared at where the snow had fallen with a wary expression.

He had spoken to it out of contemplative interest and had certainly not expected any sort of response.

Jack hesitantly approached the fallen snow and started to notice that the previous spoken word was not alone. Faint, jumbled shouts could be heard just to his right. Jack sighed at his own stupidity and made a move to return to the path home; he had a tutoring session this afternoon and he rather not be late to his own home.

"Let go!" a young girl's voice shouted above the other indistinguishable noises.

Jack's leg froze halfway. He knew that voice. He glared towards the direction of the voices as if blaming them for his assumed tardiness, but with another sigh, Jack switched his direction and trekked towards the voices.

"Come on, girly," a boy's voice sneered. "You're the Tooth Fairy's kid sis, right? Then you've got quarters, right?"

"Yeah," another voice agreed. "Hand them over."

"No!" the girl's voice protested. There was a brief sound of struggle and then, "I only trade them for teeth, but I wouldn't want _your_ teeth. They're probably full of cavities."

The girl said the last word like it was the worst insult in the world. Jack didn't find it all that impressive, but apparently the boys had taken offense to it as the sounds of the struggle increased.

"Come on, you rainbow freak. Just hand it over and this won't be like the last time."

"Back off, ugly horse-face!"

Jack finally reached the clearing where the small scuffle was ensuing. The trees thinned out to reveal what Jack assumed was the local park. Jungle gym equipment littered the area and was deserted except for five figures backed against one of the slides.

From the back, Jack couldn't tell much about the unfamiliar figures except that they all wore the same dark clothing and had the same smoky black hair. The tallest one among them towered over a certain multi-colored-haired girl. Her only escape route was to climb up the slide, but looking at her feet, Jack did not think those green "save the earth" boots would provide enough traction for her.

The girl's blue and violet mismatched eyes flickered upward to where Jack was standing and widened. Apparently, she hadn't expected any sort of back up or rescue.

Jack frowned. Was she expecting to take on all four of these boys herself?

He took a step forward, but stopped short when the girl's eyes widened further and she shook her head.

The tall one must have noticed the girl's movement and turned to face Jack.

He really was an "ugly horse-face." His two front teeth were overly large and stuck out in a rather unattractive way. His nostrils were disproportionately large and flared every so often. And to top it off, Jack was pretty sure that his oddly colored yellow eyes were too far apart. His companions shared his wash-out complexion and yellowish eyes, but Jack was relieved to find that their features were relatively normal; he did not think he would be able to take any more people with that hideous nose flare without falling over and cracking up.

Tooth's youngest sister tried to edge away from the circle of boys, but one of the boys literally snapped at her, baring his teeth.

Jack swept his gaze over the odd assembly of kids and said, "I'm almost afraid to ask."

"Then don't," horse-face growled. "This doesn't concern you, so just beat it, Newbie."

Jack raised an eyebrow at horse-face. The kid was at least a head shorter than himself and definitely younger.

"Just go, Jack. You don't need to get involved with these stupid-heads," the girl said. The boys whipped around their heads to glare at the girl, but she just stuck her tongue out at them and said, "I'm not afraid of you."

Jack definitely admired the girl's guts. Her tiny frame was shivering and he was sure it was not from the cold.

Jack schooled his face into a comical pout. "Aww and here I was looking for some snowball fight contenders."

Horse-face sneered, "Where'd you get a stupid idea like—"

The boy didn't get a chance to finish his sentence as two snowballs nailed him and one of his cronies right in the face. By the time the two had wiped their faces and the others had recovered from shock, Jack had two more snowballs leveled at their group.

"You guys look real funny with your mouths open like that," Jack said.

Horse-face's eyes twitched unnaturally for a second before he charged at Jack with his buddies not far behind.

There was no contest.

The dark-haired boys charged at full speed, but Jack merely sidestepped, nailed two more boys with snowballs, and as if by magic, had two more ready before the boys could blink. The same process went on for several more rounds and all the while, Jack's laughter echoed in the wind and seemed go infuriate the boys even more.

Finally, Jack decided to bring the cat and mouse game to a close. He threw his last two snowballs and grabbed at a fallen branch.

Three of the boys stopped dead in their tracks as they eyed the new weapon the white-haired teen now brandished. It was nothing more than a stick, but its long length and solid weight looked a lot more threatening than a couple of snowballs. Apparently, horse-face was a lot braver or a lot dumber than the others because he did not even hesitate when he saw the new weapon.

"What are you going to do?" horse-faced scoffed. "Spank me?"

Jack looked from the branch to the boy and shrugged. "If you insist."

The first hit made a smacking sound that made everyone else in the park wince. Horse-face doubled over and tried to stumble away gripping his stomach as a sharp pain blossomed in his gut, but Jack wasn't quite done yet.

The branch twirled in the teens fingers like a ringmaster's baton. Horse-face suddenly found the hooked part of the branch around his waste and a sharp tug sent him sprawling onto the ground.

Horse-face looked up and found himself face-to-face with Jack Frost. Gone was the light laughter and devilish smiles. Instead a cold ice-blue fire glared down at the younger boy.

The dark wood of the branch gestured to where the girl was still standing. "I do believe you owe the little lady an apology." His voice was still lighthearted as if they were still playing a game, but a steely undertone, suggested that the boys comply quickly or horse-face was not going to be the only one in the dirt.

The other three boys mumbled quick apologies, while they shuffled out of reach of the branch, but horse-face only continued to glare.

He slowly stood, trying to retain his dignity, but with Jack looming over him with the branch still at his side, a flicker of fear in those yellow eyes destroyed his cool demeanor.

"Don't tell me what to do!" Horse-faced yelled although it sounded more like a squeak. He pointed at the girl. "As if I'm going to apologize to a freaky girl who looks like a rainbow threw-up—"

Once again, horse-face's sentence was cut short when a sludgy snowball hit him right in the face. All of the boys, including Jack, watched in a shocked silence as the ice slid down his ugly face and into the folds of his jacket. All eyes turned to where the girl stood in feigned disinterest although her gloved were suspiciously covered in flecks of ice.

"Why you little brat!" horse-face spat. "You're going to regret that."

"Regret what?" the girl said with a complete poker face.

Horse-face only managed one step in her direction before—

_Smack!_

Once again, the lovely afternoon was interrupted by a pained yelp and a muffled thud.

Horse-face lay flat on his stomach, his rump stinging from a good, solid hit.

The girl giggled at the comical sight and horse-face scrambled to his feet, ready to take on a little girl half his size, but his buddies pulled him back.

One of them said, "Come on. A few quarters are not worth this much trouble."

Horse-face growled and shook himself free from their hold, but he only sent one more glare at the girl and Jack before disappearing into the forest without another word.

Jack walked over to the girl and bent down to pick up a fallen cap. The girl took to the cap, but was shaking her head as if Jack had gotten himself into something way over his head.

"You didn't need to do that," she said. "I could have taken care of my self."

"I know," Jack agreed. "But I didn't like how they kept mentioning a 'last time' and it's no fun to be alone."

The girl looked up him with her bi-colored eyes and Jack decided that those eyes looked far too old to be on such a young girl. He'd seen those eyes in the mirror ever since he had moved to Wittmore.

"Where are the twins?" Jack said, looking around as if his words would conjure up the two other Sang sisters. "I thought you guys were attached at the hips."

The girl scowled at the floor and stuffed her cap over her rainbow hair. "I ditched them. They were mean."

Jack gave a wry smile. He knew a sibling fight when he saw them. "Aww, sisters giving you a hard time?" he asked. "What'd they do?"

Jack was sure that the girl was just going to continue staring at the ground until it smoldered, but she eventually looked up and said, "It was something stupid—I don't even remember what it was in the beginning—but then they were making fun of my name."

Jack blinked in surprise. "Your name? Kawn-yin? What's wrong with it?"

The girl pointed an accusing finger at him. "That's just it!" she announced. "No one can pronounce it right and then they say it doesn't fit me. Kwanyin stands 'mercy,' but they just laugh and say it's all just a paradox."

She lowered her finger and a confused look crossed her face for a second.

"What's a paradox?" she asked.

Jack took a subtle step back, silently agreeing with the twins that the girl in front of him represented just about anything but "mercy." "Paradox is when a statement contradicts itself," he answered. "So if you don't like your name, why not a nickname?"

The girl seemed to consider it and then shrugged. "You could make one for me," she said, looking up hopefully.

Jack was sad to say that his creative juices had long since left him. Any original ideas had stopped ever since…

Jack shook himself and looked back at the expectant girl. "We'll see," he answered.

The girl shrugged and began to trudge towards the outside circle, ready to leave. Jack watched her go unceremoniously. She looked so tired as if the confrontation with the boys had left her more drained than she let on. Speaking of which…

"Who were they," Jack asked, gesturing to where the boys had disappeared.

The girl paused and also looked to where the shadows covered any trace of the boys.

"They're the Mares family," she answered with blatant disgust.

"So they're all brothers?"

"Some of them, not all of them, but they're related in one way or another. Cousins most likely. I think one of the older cousins is a sophomore at your school."

"Great," Jack grumbled. "They're everywhere."

"They're like a disease," the girl agreed. She looked over to where Jack and horse-face had had their final showdown. Half buried in the snow was the branch Jack had used to fend off the boys.

Jack followed Tooth's little sister as she went over and picked up the branch, wondering what the girl would want with the stick.

She held the branch in both her hands and just stared at its hard wood, running her hand over the natural designs that had been weathered into its sides. She turned to Jack with a weird look in her eyes and a playful smile.

"Kneel," she commanded, pointing at the ground right in front of her.

Jack gave her an incredulous stare. Give her a few more years and she would just like her oldest sister. Deciding that it was best not to argue with a Sang girl, Jack did as he told, trying to ignore the wet and cold seeping through his thin jeans.

The young girl straightened herself, still holding the branch in both of her hands and looking very regal for a kid half his height and dressed in bright, almost neon colors.

She raised the branch and tapped him on both shoulders. It was not until she had finished the second tap that Jack realized that the girl was reenacting a knighting ceremony. A silly grin spread across his face, but then quickly melted into a serious expression when the girl's frown told him that silliness was not proper behavior for a knight-to-be.

"For your bravery in battle against the foul Horse-Face and his wicked minions, I knight you Sir Jack Frost of the Winter Wonderland, Guardian of all that is Pure, Innocent, and Fun. Rise, Sir Jack."

Jack did so with the most dignified manner and the girl presented him with the staff.

As he accepted his weapon, the girl said, "Never leave your trusty weapon behind."

Jack gave a deep bow, gripping the staff tightly and relishing in how the wood seemed to fit so well in his hand.

"It is my honor, Princess Baby Tooth, to serve," he answered gravely.

A giggle broke their role-play and Jack looked up to see the girl with her hands over her mouth. "Princess Baby Tooth?" she repeated.

Jack stood up fully and shrugged with a grin. Aster was always calling Tooth the Queen Fairy, so that did make her sisters princesses and out of the younger trio, she did look the most like Tooth.

"Baby Tooth," she said again.

Jack shifted uncomfortably. What if he went a little too far with the whole nickname thing? "It's easier to say than Kaw—your other name," he quickly amended.

"I like it," she said, suddenly shy for some unknown reason.

Jack smiled down at her and offered her his arm, his other hand still gripping the staff possessively.

Giggling at Jack's continued play-acting, the girl, the newly dubbed "Baby Tooth," reached up and looped her hand around Jack's proffered arm as best she could.

"So, shall the princess retire to her humble servant's quarters for the finest cookies and hot chocolate that is to be offered?" Jack inquired, leading him back onto the forest's path.

"That does sound lovely," Baby Tooth answered, barely able to suppress another bout of snickers.

Jack grinned down at his young friend and swiftly led her out of hostile territory to the inviting warmth of his home.

Once they entered the toymaker's home, Jack made a beeline for the kitchen, while the girl lingered in the hallway as she put away her many layers and boots.

A small bit of white against the dark wood of the kitchen cabinets caught Jack's attention. Setting the pot of milk onto the stove to heat up, Jack walked over and peeled off the taped note.

"Jack, went to pick up your family. We shall all be back later tonight. ~North"

Jack frowned at the note, having mixed feelings about the message.

Deciding to worry about it later, Jack quickly made his two cups of hot chocolate, grabbed a bag of cookies and turned to find…

"Baby Tooth?" Jack called out hesitantly. No answer.

Jack grumbled under his breath. The girl had multi-colored hair and was not exactly hard to miss. How could she disappear like this?

A noise above his head made Jack whip his head around and then yelp when a bit of the hot chocolate spilled onto his hand. Steadying the two cups in his hand, Jack made his way upstairs.

"Baby Tooth?" Jack called out again.

A noise from his room alerted the boy of the girl's whereabouts and pushing his door open, Jack found his little sneak kneeling over a basket on the floor.

"Your hot chocolate and enough cookies to make your sister gag," Jack announced, setting both on the desk before joining her on the floor.

"You like cutting snowflakes?" Baby Tooth questioned as she held out a six-pointed cut piece of paper.

Inside the basket the girl had been looking at, cut snowflakes of all different sizes and designs innocently lay.

Jack frowned as he caught the disbelieving tone in the girl's voice. "Is there something wrong with that?" he asked back. He took the paper snowflake from the girl and studied it as if trying to find the answer to his question in the craft's design.

"No, nothing," Baby Tooth answered back casually. "It's just that the last time I made one of these things I was like in first grade or something."

She made a motion to pick up another paper snowflake, but before she could, the basket was whipped out of her reach.

"Hey!" she protested, stretching to try to reclaim the basket.

"If your going to insult my art, I don't think you deserve the privilege of viewing them," Jack said firmly.

"Is that anyway to speak to your princess?" Baby Tooth asked, standing to reach the basket.

Jack also stood and held the basket well out of her reach. "If you haven't noticed, _princess_, we're in my castle now. My castle, my rules."

"Technically, this is North's castle," Baby Tooth accused as she lunged for the evasive basket, but to no avail.

Jack shrugged, clearly not seeing the difference. He took out a paper snowflake and practically shoved it in Baby Tooth's face. "Besides, I hardly think that this is even close to the snowflakes you cut in first grade."

In truth, the paper snowflake was beautiful. It was a perfectly geometrically six-pointed snowflake with designs that certainly did not look like it could be accomplished with a pair of elementary school safety scissors, but despite the impressive artistry of the cut paper, Baby Tooth found the idea of Jack spending his time cutting snowflakes intriguing and just a bit funny.

Still unable to snag a paper snowflake from Jack, Baby Tooth instead marched over to his desk. Picking up a piece of Jack's abundant supply of paper, the girl quickly balled it up and threw it at Jack.

The paper bounced harmlessly off Jack's chest and he watched roll lazily to the floor.

"What was that supposed to do?" Jack asked. "Give me a paper cut?"

He turned back to the girl only to be met with a pillow in the face.

Jack reeled back, almost losing his grip on the basket.

Baby Tooth jumped down from where she was perched on Jack's bed and darted to the unguarded basket. Jack recovered quickly and once again yanked it out of her reach.

"I can do this all day," Jack informed her as he avoided another hit from the pillow.

"Bet you can't," Baby Tooth challenged back.

And the boy's room exploded into a flurry of threats and giggles.

* * *

Tooth panted as she reached the wooden porch and grabbed wildly for the door.

She could not believe she was so late! Try to take away a kid's lollipop and lecture him on the horrible consequences of cavities and well… bad things happen.

To her relief, the door was unlocked and allowed her easy entry into the warm sanctuary.

Upon her initial perusal, she could see no white-haired pupil, so she sprinted up the stairs two at a time.

She easily navigated the hall, found Jack's room, and opened the door to find—

Tooth's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she took in the different scenes.

All around the door, balled up paper could be seen here and there, while Jack's bed lay in a disheveled heap.

Amid the mess, a very content Kuanyin sat with a simple, wicker basket at her side. In front of her, paper snowflakes were carefully spread out. Every now and then, the girl would reach into the basket, take out another paper snowflake, and set it down with the others after a moment's thought.

Just behind her, Jack lay spread-eagle. His eyes were closed and he seemed to be mumbling something to himself.

Tooth realized too late that she had lost her grip on her book and the sudden sound of it hitting the floor startled the other room's occupants.

Jack raised his head to glare at Tooth's as if all his problems were her fault. "Baby Tooth's mean," he complained. "Tell her to give it back."

"Baby Tooth?" Tooth turned to where her sister was still sitting calmly. "What's Baby Tooth?"

Her sister grinned up at her as she began to carefully place the snowflakes back into the basket. "My new nickname," she announced proudly. The girl picked up the basket and practically skipped out of the room, not bothering to further explain or even greet her sibling.

Tooth stared at the hallway her sister had just disappeared down, still not understanding what was going on.

Deciding that the she should not concern herself and that they had enough lost time, Tooth plopped down next to Jack's prone figure.

"So," Tooth said, unable to disguise her amusement. "Did you have fun?"

* * *

A door slammed shut behind the dark figure, and hinges rattled in a rusty protest at its harsh treatment.

"Don't bang the door like that, sweetie," a pleasant voice called from the kitchen.

Dark eyebrows furrowed over piercing yellow eyes.

"Yes, mom."

"Did you have fun with your cousins?"

"Yes, mom."

The boy stomped through the hallway.

"You kept out of trouble, right?"

"Yes, mom."

"Did you remember to wipe your shoes at the doorway?"

_Slam!_

"Don't go banging that door too, sweetie!"

Behind the closed door, the boy muttered, "Don't call me 'sweetie.'"

Alan, or "horse-face" as some others knew him, scowled at the darkness of his room.

Stupid freaky girl. Stupid kid with grandpa hair. That stupid smirk. With that stupid stick.

Picking up some random trinket off the table next to him, Alan threw it against the wall.

A muffled reprimand came from behind the door, but Alan hardly paid any attention. He loved watching the destruction of something so insignificant. The object had smashed against the wall and exploded artfully into a thousand intricate pieces. The many shards caught the little light that managed to seep through the covered window and briefly cast a kaleidoscope of colors around the gloomy room.

Even the aftermath was beautiful.

The smoky-haired boy stepped forward to observe the damage done to his room.

A chunk of the wall had been splintered and spider web cracks snaked along the length of the wall.

Beautiful.

Underneath, the floor had been dented where a large piece of the object had landed.

Beautiful.

The shards of the object lay in a chaotic mess of glittering majesty.

Beautiful. Beautiful. Just…

Alan sat down next to the destruction, finding the whole thing very therapeutic for his fried nerves and wounded ego.

Finally able to clear most of the hazy anger that had cloudy mind, Alan decided there was one more thing he could do to get rid of any clinging anger.

Standing up again, Alan drifted over to his computer and booted it up.

A pale finger tapped impatiently as the old computer took its time booting up, but modern technology prevailed as whirred to life and Alan opened his web browser.

Instantly typing in the web address, Alan eagerly waited for the page to load, hoping that _he _was there.

The website was an old Mare family site, originally used for posting pictures, announcing family reunion events, and other family crap like that.

But as the Mare family began to spread out across the U.S., families became less interested in distant relatives, so the site had basically been abandoned. Until recently.

A few of the younger generation Mares had rediscovered the site and had set up a chat page, mostly to complain and joke around. Alan had almost decided he had grown out of the pointless conversations, but a few weeks ago, the boy had met someone who piqued his interest.

He went by the name "Nightmare," which Alan found to be a clever play on the family name, but what the boy found even more interesting was that Nightmare seemed to listen to everything Alan had to say. No matter how trivial the others had thought his words were, Nightmare listened.

Nightmare claimed to a distant relative and simply wanted to give his little cousin an open mind and ear.

Alan did not know how much of what Nightmare said about himself was true, but all the boy wanted to do is rant to someone. And it wasn't like Alan was giving any real personal information.

The chat room finally loaded and the boy immediately signed in.

_DarkOnyx has logged on. _

Alan bit his lip, wondering if _he_ would be there.

He glanced at the objects cluttering his desk. He narrowed his eyes, picking out his next victim in case Nightmare didn't show. A sharp beep made Alan whip around to once again stare at the pixilated screen.

_Nightmare has logged on._

A thin smile spread across Alan's face.

Mom always said he should consider a therapist to talk about his "anger issues." Well, Nightmare could be a therapist for all he knew…

_Nightmare: Good evening_

_DarkOnyx: I was wondering if you were going to show_

_Nightmare: I happened to glance at my screen. I saw you had logged on. Something bothering you?_

Alan could not help the smile that once again slipped onto his face. Nightmare always knew, and even better, he understood.

_DarkOnyx: Had a run in with a jerk today. He thought he was all that picking on kids younger than himself_

_Nightmare: Sounds like cowardice to me. How old is he?_

_DarkOnyx: Maybe 16 or 17. He's in high school_

_Nightmare: Have you had problems with him before?_

_DarkOnyx: No, he's new. Just came in a few days ago, but he's already causing trouble_

_Nightmare: He sounds like trouble. He's probably trying to impress others_

_DarkOnyx: Yeah. I hear he's from L.A. Never been there, but I hear there are some real whackos there_

…

_Nightmare: Interesting…_

* * *

The chat had gone on for quite a while. It ranged from the recent fight, to trouble at school, to annoying parents. The man chuckled as he finally logged off. The child had stopped responding, so he assumed the kid had nodded off at the keyboard.

The whole conversation was… amusing. Hearing the child whine and complain made the man feel oddly refreshed. The child was so innocent, so ignorant of what the real world was like outside his little bubble.

Children always fascinated him. Their innocence especially.

That is why he humored his little cousin's senseless ranting. Alan and the rest of his young relatives always offered such amusing stories, but this time it came with a little bonus.

The man scrolled through the conversation he had saved.

There was not a lot of information, but he was used to a little digging.

_16 or 17 years of age…_

_Recently moved from Los Angeles…_

_Came across as a loner and moody…_

The man continued to peruse the conversation, but everything else was either useless and hardly worth any attention.

Leaning back in his chair, the man stared at the short list.

It was too much of a coincidence, but then again, maybe fate had intended for them to meet again.

Above the computer screen, a picture of a boy was plastered to the wall.

His usual smile finally slipped into a dark scowl. He never left loose ends. His work had always been one of perfection. He was living darkness, leaving no wild cards… but this one had gotten away.

Looking back to the list and then the picture, the man vainly wished for some connection to appear, but it was hardly ever that easy.

Opening another tab on his web browser, the man began his research.

Yes, perhaps it was fate that they would meet again.

* * *

**A/N: Hello all! Yes, I know it has been a while, but I needed a break. Between APs, finals, and graduation, my life has been a non-stop rollercoaster. And yes, I know this chapter is really short, but if you noticed the title, you will see this was a mistake on my part. This was supposed to be the end of the last chapter, but I forgot to add it. The real chapter five should be up in a few days and this will be deleted and added to the end of chapter four where it belongs. Be patient! Chapter five is coming!**

**Thank you all for putting up with my absence!**

**Also I forgot to thank my anonymous reviewer. So thank you lalalalady d! Here's your update!**

**~Bluesky21543**


	5. Chapter 5: Rain

**If you have not already, go back and read Chapter 4 part 2 that was recently added.**

_**Italics – **_**flashback **

**Disclaimer: Still own nothing…**

* * *

**Chapter 5 - Rain**

* * *

The shadowy figure's eyes stared intently at the screen. All he needed was a single lead. That would enough to get him what he wanted.

Above the screen of his computer, the picture of the boy smirked down at him. Blue eyes taunted the hunter in his, as of yet, fruitless search.

The man's hand made a smooth, flicking motion and a knife appeared in one of the boy's cerulean eyes. Ah, much better. Now he can concentrate.

A list popped up on the computer screen and the man's eyes roved through all the information, all the failed leads.

The boy had gone to Alvedor High School until February when he had abruptly stopped attending to presumably finish his sophomore year with a private teacher or something of the sort. No other high schools held any record of him enrolling. Dead end.

His whole family had moved away, but no records of buying a house, condo, apartment, anything. Dead end.

It was dead end after dead end.

For all his expertise in computer hacking, he was coming up with absolutely nothing.

The man let a scowl slip onto his otherwise emotionless face and contemplated throwing another knife at the boy's second eye just for consistency's sake.

He could go back to the Mare family chat room and just asking his little cousin outright about the boy he had spoken of, but the man had only known the little cousin for a few weeks. It was not enough time to deduce how nosy or talkative the little cousin was. Too risky. The man always did things in the dark and he would like to keep it that way.

Opening another search window, the man began a separate search on the boy's parents.

Father. Business man. Family man. No siblings. No living relatives that he could see. Dead end.

Mother… Maiden name "North."

The man drummed his fingers on the desk. Perhaps he could do something with that…

* * *

Tooth kept shooting worried glances at the next table over, annoying Aster to no end.

Jack had decided that today was a good day to mope alone at his own lunch table. No one had dared to sit next to him. They may not have known the reason for the Frost-boy's sullen mood, but his depressing aura was more than enough to keep everyone away from him, so the rest of the student body opted for just cramming on the available tables.

"Did he have to pick the largest table to sulk at?" Aster grumbled when another student elbowed him in the ribs by accident.

Tooth shot a glare at the tall boy and his sour attitude quickly withered under the heat. The girl gave him one more warning glower before returning to stare sadly at Jack.

"I said all the wrong things," Tooth bemoaned.

Sandy patted her arms comfortably and signed something to the girl.

"Sandy's right," Aster spoke up. "You couldn't have known. If Jack had just told us right off the bat—"

"Oh, yeah," Tooth interrupted, the fire returning in her eyes. "Like that's something you definitely go around telling people 'right off the bat.'" She sighed and then added, "I should have seen the signs. There were so many hints."

Tooth bit her lip, and Aster knew exactly what was going through her mind. Everything had been going so well. Jack was turning out to be a rather good student; he had warmed up to Tooth, to his schoolmates, even to Aster; on top of that, he had invited them all over to hang out at his place.

Everything was going better than just "well," and it all fell apart in one evening.

* * *

**The day before**

* * *

_"Oi! What in the blazes do ya think ya're doin'!"_

_Confused blue eyes met narrowed green ones and the perplexed answer was, "Getting something to eat."_

_"Not like that ya ain't." The Aussie huffed. "If ya want something, go about it like a normal person and ask or get up and yer use hands, not this... this stick!" Aster flicked the hooked end of the aforementioned stick out of the popcorn bowl._

_The white-haired teen had previously been using the hooked end of his stick to snag the bowl and then drag it closer to himself. Aster had found the whole thing completely unnecessary and disgustingly unsanitary. He shuddered at just the thought of what kinds of diseases could be crawling on that stick._

_"Hey!" a shrill voice interjected. "Don't call a knight's weapon a stick!"_

_"Weapon? Knight?" Aster repeated incredulously. "Who in their right mind would knight this gumby?" The Aussie jabbed a contemptuous finger in Jack's direction._

_Jack snapped at it playfully, and Aster heard Tooth coo fondly over the sight of Jack's pearly whites._

_"I did. Princess Baby Tooth," the girl declared proudly._

_"As if you could be the princess of anything," Mai piped up._

_The newly declared Baby Tooth swung to face her sister. "Jealous?"_

_"Hardly," the Sang twins chorused._

_"Girls," Tooth sighed. "Must we do this everyday?"_

_But the younger sisters ignored Tooth and the argument promptly ensued._

_"So," Jack called over the trill voices of the younger girls and motioned to the bowl of snacks with his over-glorified stick. "Do you mind passing me the popcorn, Bunny?"_

_Aster scowled at the other boy and said, "As a matter of fact, I do."_

_Aster reached over with the intent of scooting the bowl farther away from the white-haired nuisance, but another pair of hands intercepted the Aussie's own, plucked it out of Aster's reach, and presented it to Jack._

_"Thank you, Sandy," Jack said although Aster could have sworn that the bugger's bloody, little grin was directed at him instead of Sandy._

_The mute teenager gave Jack two thumbs-up, easily ignoring Aster's sputtering protests._

_"Jack? Do you have any more of those yummy crackers?" Kannitha asked._

_"Here, pass me the bowl," Jack replied, his arm outstretched to accept the bowl from the young girl._

_"Thanks, Jack!" the girl said, a starry look in her eyes. Jack obliged her with a quick grin, which she promptly swooned over._

_Jack got up to retrieve the snack when he caught sight of Aster bent over an egg with a paintbrush in hand._

_"Okay, since we're on the topic of strange behaviors," Jack said. "What are you doing to my eggs?"_

_Aster looked up from his brightly colored egg long enough to give the other boy a withering look. "They're mine, ya gumby. These little beauties are my next project for Mr. Mooney."_

_Jack picked up an egg, ignoring the protests about wet paint. "So these are what Mr. Mooney calls 'Aster's googies.'"_

_Somehow the boy managed to balance the painted egg on his staff and slide the egg down its wooden side into Aster's waiting hands._

_"Ya dill, what are ya tryin' to do? I—"_

_"Oh Jack?" Tooth interjected above Aster's ranting._

_Jack paused on his way to the kitchen and looked back._

_"Thanks for letting me bring the girls," Tooth said._

_"These are fragile!" Aster continued. "You put one scratch on 'em and I'll—"_

_"Sorry if they've been any trouble, but with my parents at that welcome party for yours... Well, someone had to watch them."_

_Tooth sent a rueful glance at the arguing sisters, but Jack merely laughed and waved a dismissive hand._

_"It's okay, really. I know what siblings can be like."_

_"If ya do a stupid trick like that again—"_

_Realization dawned in Tooth's eyes as she just remembered a certain detail. "That's right. Where's your sis—_

_Tooth's last word was drowned out as both Aster and Kannitha decided to raise their voices at the same time._

_"Hey Jack. Did you get the crackers yet?"_

"_Ya hear me, Frostbite?"_

_Jack chuckled under his breath. "I'm getting them," he called to the Sang girl an then added to the seething Aussie, "Chill, Cottontail. These eggs are safe in my house._

_The white-haired boy pantomimed a golf swing, an impish gleam in his eyes, and then turned to the kitchen._

_Aster growled as he protectively gathered the eggs closer to himself._

_"I'm goin' to snap that bloody staff," the teen muttered darkly._

_"Oh please don't," Tooth said, while Sandy tried to console him with a pat on his arm. "Baby Tooth (isn't that cute!) calls it his warrior weapon. She'll be upset if you break it."_

_"Ya're just siding with him because it annoys me, aren't ya sheila?"_

_"I don't know what you are talking about, E. Aster Bunnymund," Tooth sniffed._

_"Are ya still mad about your chemistry grade? I said I was sorry, Tooth!"_

"_Your apologies have been heard and duly noted," Tooth returned curtly. _

_A squeal cut off any reply Aster might have made and it was soon followed by the sound of pounding feet. Looking up, Tooth caught the sight of her siblings crowding around the window. _

"_It's snowing again, Tooth!" one of them shrieked happily._

_Tooth smiled knowingly. "Do you want to go outside?"_

"_Do you even have to ask?" Kannitha shouted back. _

_When Jack returned to the room, he was nearly trampled by a rainbow whirlwind as the younger girls tried to race to the door while simultaneously shoving on hats, earmuffs, and various other winter gear. "Come on, Jack!" Baby Tooth hollered as she steamrolled past him. "It's snowing!"_

_Jack flinched as the door was thrown open and a gust of icy, winter air hit him. Aster glanced at Jack in faint surprise. If there was one thing he had learned about the other teen in the little time he had been here, it was that he was near impervious to cold. _

"_Crikey!" _

_A certain Aussie on the other hand…_

_Aster huddled miserably up against the couch in a vain attempt to warm himself up. _

"_Shut the door, Frostbite!" Aster grounded out. _

_In a weird sort of daze, Jack obliged without a single protest. The door shut with a final click, but not before Tooth had caught sight of the inviting winter wonderland that was quickly forming outside. Aster saw a gleam enter his friend's eyes, and Aster internally groaned, knowing what was coming. _

"_Up, Aster!" she said tugging on her friend. "You could use a little exercise after hunching over those eggs all day."_

_The boy grumbled, but allowed himself to be dragged towards the door. As soon Aster vacated his spot on the sofa, Jack slipped in and sat down heavily, the dazed look still present in his eyes. Sandy gave Jack a concerned look and scooted close to the white-haired teen as is sensing a coldness that could only be warded away by another's presence. _

_Jack startled when Sandy laid a hand on his arm, but relaxed when the blonde just sent him a shy smile. _

_Tooth and Aster both stood there in silence, watching the whole exchange. Tooth shot her friend a confused look, but Aster could only shrug back. The Aussie turned away to gather his coat, hoping that she did not catch the worried light in his own eyes. _

"_Um, Jack?" Tooth called. "Care to join us outside?"_

_Jack's blue eyes turned to her and his eyebrows furrowed together as if he did not understand the question. Sandy poked him in the side, and the spell over Jack seemed to break for a second. _

"_Uh, yeah. Let me, uh, just get my…" Jack's voice trailed off as he stared out the window. A strange sort of apprehension seemed to build up in the silence, but once again, Jack shook it off. "My shoes. That's what I need."_

_He shook off Sandy's warm touch and breezed past Tooth and Aster. Tooth could only stare as Jack's back retreated into another room. _

_In no time, the teens had joined the Sang trio, watching in faint amusement as the three flitted around in the gathering snow in a free-for-all game of tag. _

_Jack also stood by them, but his hood was thrown up and his hands were buried deep in his pockets. Aster knew that it had nothing to do with the cold. _

"_What's up with him?" Aster breathed a little louder than he meant. Tooth looked up in surprise to meet her friend's green gaze. Aster interpreted the look and gave an indignant snort. "He's an annoyin' bugger, but I am entitled to worry about him too. You ain't the only one who's noticed." To prove his point, the Aussie nodded to Sandy who was shooting questioning glances at the unresponsive boy. _

_Sandy signed something to his friends, and Tooth and Aster both nodded in agreement. It was as if Jack was regressing. Aster glanced at Tooth, knowing that she felt frustrated seeing all her hard work to get him out of his shell seemingly vanish so quickly. _

"_I haven't made a snowman this year!" Tooth exclaimed suddenly. _

"_What?" Aster asked. "Sure ya did. Ya did it—" Aster's sentence was abruptly cut off with a wheeze that may or may not have resulted from Sandy's elbow in his gut. _

"_Come on, girls! Want to help?" Tooth called and then turned to where Jack stood rooted to the porch. "You too, Jack!"_

_Jack head whipped up, so they could see the shadowed blue eyes under the hood. He opened his mouth to decline or maybe to protest, but they would never know because Tooth bounded across the space separating them and dragged him into the light snowfall. _

"_You do know how to make a snowman, right?" she asked. _

_Jack nodded mutely, and Tooth flashed him a grin that seemed a little too bright in Aster's eyes. _

_All seven of them joined in building the snowman and in no time, three perfect balls of snow were sitting on top of each other. The three younger Sang girls had darted into the forest and gathered twigs, rocks, and other materials to produce the snowman's smiling face. _

"_He needs to be warm," Baby Tooth declared, taking off her own scarf. _

_Jack smiled—the first smile to appear on his face since he had stepped out into the snowfall. _

"_Here, little lady," he said. He plucked up the girl and lifted her up so that she could wrap the scarf around the snowman. _

"_He needs a hat now," Mai chirped. Everyone turned to look at Aster, the only one with a hat large enough to fit on the snowman's round head. _

"_Nuh-uh. No way, mates," Aster said, putting a protective hand on his hat. "This is stayin' right where it belongs—on my head."_

"_But Aster," Mai whined, reaching futilely up to Aster's hat. _

_Jack gave a low chuckle. "Uncle North has a old top hat that we can use."_

"_I'll get it," Aster quickly volunteered. _

_He was already making his escape as Jack shouted after him, "Down the hallway, second doorway to your right. Should be on the top shelf."_

_As quick as a rabbit, Aster returned with an old, but still elegant top hat and arranged it properly on the snowman's head. _

_All four girls cheered at the completion of their snowman. _

"_What a dashing gentleman that has visited us this evening."_

_The children turned around, startled by the new voice. Aster took in the new face in a second and before she could stop herself, blurted out, "It's an older Jack."_

_Realizing what she had said, Tooth quickly slapped her hand over her mouth as heat rose up on her cheeks. _

"_Smooth, sheila," Aster chuckled under his breath. _

_The man's laughter rang through the open area and two more sets mingled with his as North and a woman walked up to join him._

"_That's an unusual way of putting it," the man replied when he had regained his breath. "I tend to think that Jack gets his looks from me, not the other way around."_

"_I'm sorry," Tooth murmured from behind her hand. _

_The man waved away her apology with a flippant hand and friendly smile. _

"_Don't worry, dear," the woman said with the barest hint of an accent. "He needs to be reminded of his age from time to time or else he might do stupid things like diving off a roof into a pool."_

_The man winced and rubbed his side as if remembering an old injury. _

"_Well, I guess you're all wondering who we old folk are," the man said, smoothly changing the subject. He gave Jack a pointed look, but the boy either did not notice or was still in his silent brooding because he did not give the man any sort of reaction. With a sigh, the man proceeded to introduce himself. "Jasper Frost, at your service."_

_Handshakes were exchanged between teenagers and adults and high-fives were given to the younger siblings as the children introduced themselves. _

"_And if you haven't guessed it already, I'm Jack's father," he said with an easy grin directed at Tooth's still very red face. _

_As Tooth's earlier outburst had hinted, Jack was the spitting image of his dad minus the fact that Mr. Frost did not seem to bleach his hair or wear contacts. Even their demeanor was almost disturbingly the same. From the lopsided grin to the sparkling glint in their eyes, they mirrored one another, except of course Jack's eyes were currently devoid of any sort of glint sparkling or otherwise. _

"_And this is Claire, my wife," the man continued. _

_The woman gave the group a pleasant smile and a quiet hello. She looked nothing like her brother. She was petite for one thing, only standing up to North's chest. Her hair was a dark brown instead of the black Aster knew North had had in his younger days. Even her accent was significantly less pronounced then North's obvious Russian one. The only thing the two siblings shared was the pale blue that colored their smiling eyes. _

"_It's nice to meet ya, sir, ma'am," Aster said, sounding more reserved than usual. Sandy gave a nod and a returning smile. _

_Tooth had finally overcome her embarrassment and looked from North to the couple to Jack. Tooth frowned as if trying to find some missing puzzle piece. _

_Aster realized just what Tooth was looking right before she said it. North had a nephew and a niece. _

"_Where's Rosie?"_

_The couple had frozen in exchanging greetings with the group of friends and turned to stare at her. _

"_That's your daughters name isn't it?" Tooth continued self-consciously, her voice getting weaker as she went on. "Rosie?"_

_There was another moment of silence before Claire Frost gasped and her hands flew to her mouth as she choked back another sound. _

_Jack suddenly broke out of his frozen spell and darted to his mother's side. He slung an arm around her trembling form and began whispering indistinguishable words to her. _

_Tooth took a step back as if someone had hit her, and the children watched the scene unfold before them. _

_Mr. Frost and North immediately rushed to Mrs. Frost's side, but for some reason, the woman would only let Jack console her. She gripped at Jack's hoodie and pulled him close as if afraid he would disappear into smoke. North spoke briefly to Jack, and with a nod, the boy began leading his mother back to the house. _

_Mr. Frost turned to the group, a tight and resigned look on his face. It reminded Aster so much of when Jack had first entered Wittmore High. _

"_Mr. Frost, I'm so sorry," Tooth said, confusion evident in her voice. _

"_No," Mr. Frost said gently, "No, you had no way of knowing." _

_He gazed brokenly at the assembled children. _

_Mr. Frost sighed, "Rosie… Rosie had died last December."_

_Aster stared at the man in shock. A thousand apologies and words of comfort crowded at the edge of his tongue, but for some reason, the sentences died in the back of his throat. _

_Tooth also seemed to be choking on unspoken words. And a horrible silence fell over the children. _

_A heavy hand rested on Mr. Frost's shoulder. "Jay, I will explain to children," North spoke. "Your wife and son need family now."_

_Mr. Frost nodded, seeming a hundred times older than he had just a few seconds ago. _

_North turned to the children, grief written all over his face. _

"_Oh, North—" Tooth began, but the huge man cut her off with a raised hand. _

"'_Tis my fault. I should have told you before they came, then awkward situation would not have happened, no? 'Tis my fault."_

"_Is there anythin' we can do, mate?" Aster spoke up._

_North shook his head and then hesitated. _

"_Be Jack's friend. He needs friends more than ever."_

* * *

"I really am an idiot," Tooth mumbled into her hands. "Everything I said was wrong."

"Ya are talkin' crazy," Aster said. "Ya sound like ya're talkin' about a boyfriend ya just broke up with."

Tooth shot Aster another glare. "He's not a boyfriend, but he _is_ a friend."

Aster snapped his mouth shut and sneaked a peak at the boy, picking listlessly at his food. The Aussie could imagine storm clouds hanging over the boy's head. Like they did in the movies. Aster could almost see the snapping of the lightning, could almost hear the booming of the thunder. Rain was surely on its way.

"I should go talk to him," Tooth said, making a move to stand.

"No," Aster ordered, his voice low. Tooth froze and opened her mouth to retort, but Aster beat her to it. "I'll talk to him. He needs someone who understands, not a girl."

Tooth's face lit up like a cherry bomb and Aster realized his mistake, "Nah, sheila. That's not what I meant," Aster said quickly.

"Then what did you mean?" Tooth demanded. Her eyes held enough heat to melt Alaska.

"I mean that I can understand. I've been in the same place, ya know. Ya could talk to him, but face it, Tooth, he'll just see ya as more sympathy. He'll appreciated, but it won't help, not in the long run anyways." Something he said must have been right because Tooth relaxed back into her seat again and the death scene that Aster had seen in her eyes also cooled.

"Okay," Tooth said slowly.

Aster rose from his seat and instantly the sea of students closed around his empty spot.

"Oi!" Aster protested. "Don't get too comfortable, ya dills, 'cause I'm coming back and my seat better be warm and waitin' for me."

The student population promptly ignored the Aussie and Aster just sighed rubbing his head, considering his seat forfeit. No turning back now.

A tug on his arm got him looking down into Sandy's warm gold eyes. The blonde gave Aster a meaningful look and Aster said, "I know, mate. I'll try not to hit him."

Sandy nodded, seemingly satisfied with that, and released his friend.

Aster made his way slowly over to the nearly deserted table, wondering what in world had possessed him to do this.

He sat directly opposite to Jack, but the boy gave no indication he knew that his personal space had been invaded. He simply continued picking at his food.

"Ya better shove something down your trap, Frost. I don't think that you can afford to be any skinnier."

Jack's head snapped up, and Aster startled when he heard a bang underneath the table.

Jack gasped and then grabbed his knee with a small sound of pain.

Aster watched this all with a dim amusement. "Smooth, Frostbite. Very smooth."

"Think you could top that, Cottontail?" Jack said with a grin.

Aster eyed that grin distrustfully, ignoring the nickname. Jack's lips were pulled tight across his face so that it looked strained rather than friendly or even playfully mocking, and Aster hated to admit that it disturbed him even more those devilish smirks.

"Why are ya over here, Frost?" Aster asked, his narrowed eyes showing that he was not here for games.

"Seems pretty crowded over there don't you think," Jack said, pointing at one of the overflowing tables.

Aster resisted the urge to strangle the nonsense out of the teen and accuse him of being the cause of all the other students' discomfort. "Jack," Aster stated firmly.

That got the teen's attention. A shadow crossed over his blue eyes and briefly Aster wondered about the brown color Tooth had told him lay underneath, but the moment went as quickly as it came and again that tight smile was on Jack's face.

"Maybe you should go back to Tooth and Sandy, Aster," Jack said, revealing that he knew exactly what Aster's intentions for coming over here were.

Aster froze. Jack had actually said his real name, not Bunny, not Kangaroo, not Cottontail… and Aster found that he did not like it—not one bit.

For some reason, that was all Aster could take of this sullen Jack. Crack a joke, throw a snowball, anything but this pitiful show of depression.

"Come on, Frostbite," Aster announced grabbing the other youth's arm. "Outside. Now."

"What?" Jack asked, fork dropping to the plate. "I thought you hated the cold."

"Ya got something against my change in preference?" Aster demanded, easily dragging Jack out of his seat and towards the door. The whole cafeteria had gone silent as they watched the Aussie manhandle the slight, white-haired boy.

"What about my lunch?" Jack asked.

"What were you going to do with it?" Aster scoffed. "Let some freshman who forget his lunch have it."

On the way out, Tooth gave Aster an unsure smile, while Sandy gave the Aussie a full, toothy grin and two thumbs-up.

"Way to be subtle, mate," Aster grumbled at Sandy when Jack shot the Aussie a glare like this was all his idea.

They pushed through the doors of the cafeteria that led outside and a full blast of winter air made Aster immediately regret his decision. At least the snow had stopped.

"Your preference, huh?" Jack said, gesturing the snow-covered tables and ground.

"I love winter, don't ya know," Aster grumbled, releasing Jack's arm to rub his freezing arms.

Jack took the opportunity to turn back to the door, but through the glass, both of them could see that Jack's table had disappeared under the swarming high school students.

"No way, Frost," Aster said, grabbing his arm again and pulling him further away from the door.

Finally admitting defeat, Jack no longer resisted Aster's tugging and instead jerked his arm out of the other boy's grasp and marched over to one of the farthest tables where he cleared a spot to sit. With that little show done, Jack turned to glare at Aster as if to say "you may have gotten me here, but don't expect me to talk."

Aster sighed and cleared the spot right next to Jack and sat down purposefully.

And so they sat, for a whole minute or so—Jack in defiant silence and Aster in morose contemplation.

They would have sat there longer, but Aster decided it would be better to start sooner than later considering his butt was starting to freeze on the unforgiving stone.

"It hurts a lot, doesn't it?" Aster asked.

Jack gave a disbelieving snort as if he could not believe that Aster had the audacity to say such a thing. "'Hurt' doesn't cover it. Try unbearable or how 'bout agonizing? 'Hurt' doesn't describe losing... family." Jack nearly choked on the last word and Aster tried to face Jack, but the other teen was looking the other way.

"I ain't talking about that, ya gumby," Aster said.

Jack turned and gave Aster a confused look. "Separatin' yerself," Aster clarified. "Ya cut yerself off thinkin' it will keep others from hurtin' too, but ya know what? It does the bloody opposite! Oi, so we may not understand the deepest parts, but give a chance to or else let us at least be there. Why are ya doin' this, mate?"

Jack was silent for the longest time before he subtly wiped a sleeve over his nose and turned to Aster. "Who was she?" he asked. "Or he?"

Aster really did not give the little bugger enough credit sometimes. He could be darn perceptive when he wanted to be.

"Actually it's 'they,'" Aster stated dully. Years of buried hurts and nightmares rose from the recesses of his mind, but the Aussie pushed them back; he had had his time to cry and mourn; he had moved beyond that. "My parents. Australia seems like such a nice place to live, but we got troubles and murderers just like any other place out there. Innocent people—it ain't fair sometimes, but..."

Jack did not push for details, but rather let the other boy tell the story how he wanted to, and for that, Aster was grateful.

"I didn't have any other family. The only other relatives I had died before I was born—some freak fire or something," Aster continued. "My adoptive parents took me up, brought me to their home town. I was a really lucky bugger, but I didn't see it that way. Took me years before I started callin' Ed and Susan 'mom' and 'dad.'"

Aster stopped. There was more to say, but he couldn't get the words out, yet when he glanced hesitantly at Jack and found those blue eyes staring back at him, and Aster knew that Jack had somehow gotten the message.

Seeing that Aster was now looking at him, Jack quickly looked away and wiped at any tear that may or may not have streaked down his cheeks and he spoke, "I was so tired or hearing the "I'm so sorry" and "you have my condolences." Jack's voice grated against his throat, but he kept talking. "Even Uncle North... He lost a girl a while back. I think it happened before I was born. Her name was Katherine. He kept saying he understood that I could talk to him, but he's had years to get over it and she wasn't exactly family. You..." Jack stopped as his throat closed and Aster put a hand on the boy's shoulder.

Jack didn't need to finish the sentence. The message was loud and clear: "They don't understand. But you do. Thank you."

They stayed like that for the longest time until Aster decided that he should at least say one thing that would make Tooth happy. "Ya know, Frost. Everyone may not understand, but they still care. Just ignore the stupid pity 'cause at least it means they're still lookin' out for ya. They—we are still here, Jack. Ya don't have to be alone, not any more."

Jack nodded and gave a shuddering breath.

The bell gave a dull ring and both boys gave it a weary and slightly annoyed look. Neither made a move to go to class.

Aster gave a glance at Jack and found that he boy was also eyeing him with the same tired look.

"Mr. Mooney doesn't care what I do," Aster said. "I don't feel like goin' to 6th period."

"Teacher's pet," Jack snorted. "When you're in grieving, it seems like the teachers don't question what you do, so I have a free period too."

"How 'bout a drink at the Tea Leaf?"

Jack made a face. "You mean the place that uses a lawn as its main ingredient? Pass."

"What'd you say, Frost?" Aster asked, eyes narrowed.

"Nothing," the white-haired teen said innocently. "My parents and Uncle North are supposed to be out getting some 'home necessities.' How about some teeth-rotting sweets and mind-numbing movies at my place?"

"Tooth's goin' to kill us," Aster muttered, but hopped off the bench and began to lead the way to the road.

Jack followed. "Oh the many joys of ditching."

The two boys located the loose part of the school's gate the janitor always swore he was going to fix someday and easily slipped through. They walked in a silence of shared understanding.

About halfway to North's house, Aster realized he could only hear one set of footsteps. Looking around, Aster spotted Jack a couple paces behind him. The white-haired teen had just frozen on the deserted road as fresh snow once again began to fall.

Sensing that something was off, Aster backtracked so that he was standing at the other teen's side.

"Frostbite?" Aster asked softly.

Jack gave no indication that he knew that Aster was there, but continued to watch the snowfall. A pale reached out to catch the little flakes and Jack brought it close so he could watch the fragile flake melt underneath his warm breath.

"She loved the snow," Jack finally said. "Every time I see it, I can't help but..."

Jack reached out his hand again, but another hand stopped his and instead pulled him close—away from the cold.

And Aster just stood there, ignoring the two skinny shoulders that shook slightly under his embrace and the wetness that soaked through his sleeve, because the rain had yet to stop falling.

* * *

**A/N: Some nice bromance going on. So now you all know what happened (although I'm sure many of you have guessed already). More details of the tragedy are to come.**

**Thanks to all my reviewers and people who favorited and/or followed this story.**

**Answers to anonymous reviews:**

**Guest 1 (6/27): Thank you for your review! And of course I'm keeping this up. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**

**tdbrigit: I feel honored that you think so highly of my story. Thank you so much!**

**Guest 2 (6/28): Thanks very much for your review! I hope you liked this update :)**

**~Bluesky21543**


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